tIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 

-  ! 

THtOLOC                 \RY 

CHARLES  WOODRUFF  SHIELDS. 

A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

BY 

WILLIAM   MILLIGAN   SLOANE. 


HBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 

,    1 

-  1   2005 

THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

CHARLES  WOODRUFF  SHIELDS. 

i. 

The  ideals  of  youth  are  seldom  realized,  and  yet  some 
men  see  the  fruit  of  their  labors,  being  so  blessed  that  after 
a  long  and  laborious  life,  they  die  as  young  in  feeling  and 
in  enterprise  as  they  were  in  early  youth.  In  his  eightieth 
year  Charles  Woodruff  Shields  was  as  much  himself,  as 
fully  in  possession  of  all  his  fine  powers  and  qualities  as  he 
had  been  in  the  prime  of  his  years.  It  was  therefore  with  a 
sense  of  fulfilment  that  he  left  in  the  hands  of  a  friend 
certain  manuscripts  for  posthumous  publication  as  the  com- 
pletion of  his  life  work.  His  choice  fell  upon  one  who  is 
a  layman  to  both  lines  of  the  study  which  so  engrossed  the 
author,  a  fact  interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  editor  was 
to  confine  himself  strictly  to  the  task  of  verbal  correction, 
and  to  avoid  all  effort  at  revision  or  rearrangement  of  the 
matter.  This  is  the  more  evident  as  most  of  the  philo- 
sophical and  apologetic  material  had  already  been  printed  in 
one  form  or  another,  and  had  had  the  careful  revision  of 
the  author.  What  follows  as  the  last  division  of  the  "  Final 
Philosophy  "  is  therefore  given  exactly  at  it  was  intended 
to  stand,  and  in  connection  with  the  two  preceding  volumes 
needs  no  introduction. 


ii. 

The  author  of  these  chapters  was  fully  aware  of  the 
position  he  had  taken  and  of  all  the  responsibilities  incident 
to  the  selection  of  a  title  which  was  almost  a  challenge: 
though  personally  one  of  the  most  modest  of  men,  he  was 
fearless  to  a  fault  in  the  exposition  and  defence  of  the  truth 


viii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

as  he  saw  it.  He  was  convinced  that  all  the  sciences  could 
be  united  into  one  Christian  philosophy,  and  that  all  denom- 
inations of  Christian  believers  could  be  united  into  one 
visible  church  of  Christ.  In  no  sense  did  he  conceive  that 
the  "  final  "  word  in  philosophy  was  to  be  spoken  by  him,  but 
he  did  believe  and  was  not  ashamed  to  declare  that  these 
exalted  ideals  would  never  approach  realization  unless  the 
plan  were  outlined  and  fruitful  suggestions  were  made  to- 
wards its  accomplishment.  This  he  essayed  to  do  and  in 
the  effort  he  deployed  extraordinary  powers  of  research 
and  of  assimilation.  This  was  not  all,  for  as  it  stands  the 
"  Final  Philosophy  "  is  far  more  than  a  suggestion,  it  is  a 
system  more  or  less  complete  of  Cosmic  philosophy,  based 
on  a  synthesis  of  all  the  empirical  sciences  in  their  natural 
order  of  an  ascent  which  culminates  in  theology,  or  rather 
in  a  theistic  ontology  derived  from  Revelation  as  a  valid 
source  of  data. 

In  the  same  way  the  author  of  the  "  United  Church  of 
the  United  States"  (1896)  suggested  with  the  strength  of 
a  firm  conviction  and  the  force  of  a  historical  expert  that 
practical  Church  unity  was  within  reach  if  only  a  beginning 
were  discussed  and  made.  For  him  the  most  striking  phe- 
nomenon of  contemporary  history  was  the  elasticity  of  the 
federal  system  in  politics,  a  system  which  in  his  own  country 
comprehended  in  a  roomy  edifice  men  of  every  land  and 
tongue,  of  every  tradition  and  practice,  provided  only  they 
were  devoted  to  the  essential  idea  of  liberty  under  law.  He 
could  see  no  good  reason  why  in  some  similar  way  men  of  a 
common  faith  should  not,  under  an  elastic  constitution,  mass 
their  forces  against  the  forces  of  infidelity  and  worldliness. 
The  question  of  church  unity  was  for  him  an  eminently 
practical  one,  to  be  solved  in  a  churchmanlike  and  politic 
way.  Assiduous  in  his  study  of  the  historic  forces  which 
had  rent  the  reformed  churches  into  denominations,  he  pro- 
posed a  method  of  reintegration  which  was  based  on  the 
most  sacred  convictions  of  believers  and  on  the  lessons  of  the 
past. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  ix 

in. 

The  personality  of  Dr.  Shields  was  as  engaging  as  his 
mind.  He  was  elegant  and  urbane,  sensitive  and  fasci- 
nating, a  man  of  refinement  and  culture,  with  all  the  charm 
of  manner  which  springs  from  self-respect  and  consideration 
for  others.  His  company  was  eagerly  sought  by  the  best 
society  and  his  conversation  was  stimulating  and  refreshing. 
He  loved  the  atmosphere  of  quiet  studies,  but  he  was  happy 
in  the  world  and  sensitive  to  its  charms.  No  man  could  be 
more  ardent  and  industrious  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge, 
nor  more  contemplative  in  its  interpretation ;  yet  he  had 
abundant  leisure  for  friendship  and  the  duties  of  his  home. 
His  love  for  his  university  was  a  passion,  and  he  served  her 
with  a  devotion  which  ennobled  her  life  and  his  own.  In 
his  veins  ran  the  blood  of  old  colonial  stock,  north  and  south, 
his  view  of  his  country  was  correspondingly  catholic  and 
patriotic. 

The  endearing  qualities  of  the  man  were  as  marked  as  the 
wide  range  of  his  learning.  Constructive  scholarship  is  not 
always  gentle,  far  from  it,  and  it  is  interesting  to  trace  the 
origin  and  evolution  of  the  man  who  is  both  a  gentle  man 
and  a  learned  man.  This  combination  was  the  preeminent 
characteristic  of  Dr.  Shields :  it  was  due  partly  to  heredity 
and  partly  to  a  broad  and  varied  training. 

Mere  pride  of  birth  is  vanity.  The  world  is  full  of  men 
and  women  whose  personal  insignificance  is  only  heightenad 
by  the  achievements  of  the  ancestors  from  whom  they  claim 
descent.  But  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  who  are 
stimulated  to  great  energy  by  the  knowledge  that  there 
courses  in  their  veins  the  blood  of  men  who  have  lived  on 
a  high  plane  and  who  have  achieved  something  for  God  and 
fatherland.  Among  the  notes  of  Dr.  Shields,  written  late 
in  life  and  evidently  as  a  pastime,  are  some  remarks  on  the 
subject  which  are  of  much  interest  in  explaining  the  char- 
acter of  the  man.  I  like,  he  said,  to  discern  the  honorable 
ancestry  of  a  friend  in  his  character  and  in  his  countenance. 


x  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

For  myself,  however,  I  must  be  content  with  a  modest  pedi- 
gree which  is  good  enough  as  far  as  it  has  been  traced.  If 
it  can  boast  of  no  crowns  or  coronets  among  its  crests,  yet 
it  shows  no  blot  or  bar  sinister  upon  its  shields.  The  name 
itself  may  hint  of  the  knightly  esquire  of  heraldry  (scutum, 
ecuyer)  ;  and  in  fact  both  the  Scottish  and  the  English 
branches  of  the  family  have  borne,  with  differences,  the 
device  of  three  shields  upon  their  escutcheon.  The  surname 
has  even  been  traced  far  back  among  northern  myths  to  Scyld 
or  Schild,  father  of  the  demigod  Odin,  the  founder  of  both 
the  Norman  and  the  Saxon  dynasties  of  southern  Europe. 
As  these  two  lineages  became  blended  after  the  Conquest, 
it  would  be  easier  to  claim  them  both  than  to  choose  between 
them. 

In  later  times,  he  continues,  the  family  was  lowland 
Scotch  or  northern  English  by  turns,  as  the  border  line 
shifted  during  the  wars  of  the  two  kingdoms.  The  place 
name  is  still  found  on  both  sides  of  the  Tweed,  as  borne  by 
hall  or  hamlet  at  Shieldfield  and  Galashields  near  Melrose 
Abbey  and  by  the  two  seaport  towns,  North  Shields  and 
South  Shields,  on  the  site  of  old  Norman  and  Roman  ruins 
on  both  sides  of  the  Tyne.  To  myself  I  seem  to  have  lived 
mentally  in  borderland,  and  if  subconscious  effects  of  ances- 
try may  assert  themselves  in  one's  tastes,  I  like  to  look  back 
for  a  historical  beginning  to  that  romantic  region  so  cele- 
brated in  the  Border  Minstrelsy  and  so  hallowed  in  the  more 
heroic  annals  of  the  Border  Covenanters.  The  ballad  of 
Chevy  Chase  is  attributed  by  antiquarians  to  "  one  Rychard 
Sheale,  minstrel " ;  and  in  another  old  ballad  the  name 
appears  among  the  Scots  with  whom  the  Englishman  was 

at  feud — 

"  And  Anton  Shiel,  he  loves  not  me." 

When  the  feuds  became  religious  as  many  as  eighteen  of 
the  name  were  ranked  with  the  Presbyterian  martyrs.  Chief 
among  them  was  James  Shields,  a  bonnet  laird  of  Haugh 
Head,  in  Lauderdale,  whose  two  sons,  Michael  Shields  and 
Alexander,  wielded  their  pens  vigorously  enough  for  Christ's 


A  Biographical  Sketch. 


XI 


Crown  and  Covenant.  Michael  was  clerk  of  the  Societies, 
as  the  outlawed  Covenanters  were  called,  with  Sir  Robert 
Hamilton  for  their  chief,  and  afterwards  published  their 
proceedings  in  a  volume  with  the  quaint  title  "  Faithful  Con- 
tendings  Displayed,"  from  which  the  philosopher  Sir  Wil- 
liam Hamilton  has  since  derived  proof  of  his  claim  to  the 
baronetcy.  The  other  son,  Reverend  Alexander  Shields, 
had  a  most  eventful  career.  Graduating  from  Edinburgh 
University  in  1675,  he  pursued  his  studies  in  Holland,  re- 
turned to  England,  was  ordained  by  the  Presbytery  of  Lon- 
don and  became  amanuensis  to  the  great  non-conformist 
divine  John  Owen.  During  the  persecutions  of  James  II  he 
was  taken  to  Edinburgh,  subjected  to  torture  at  the  Tolbooth 
and  cast  into  the  dismal  prison  of  the  Bass  Rock,  from  which 
he  escaped  in  woman's  clothing.  He  then  succeeded  the 
martyred  Renwick  as  preacher  to  the  hunted  bands  of  wor- 
shippers on  the  moors  and  mountains,  and  issued  for  them 
their  "  Informatory  Vindication,"  published  in  Holland ;  at 
the  same  time  publishing  his  own  chief  treatise:  "  Naphtali, 
The  Hind  Let  Loose,  or  An  Historical  Representation  of  the 
Church  of  Scotland  for  the  Interest  of  Christ."  On  the 
coming  of  William  of  Orange  he  espoused  the  "  revolution 
settlement,"  and  was  made  chaplain  of  the  famous  Came- 
ronian  regiment,  exhorting  them  to  the  desperate  battle  at 
Dunkeld,  which  ended  in  a  psalm  of  victory.  After  serving 
for  ten  years  as  minister  at  St.  Andrew's  he  was  appointed  by 
the  General  Assembly  senior  minister  to  the  ill-fated  Darien 
expedition,  and  after  severe  hardships  and  disappointments 
died  on  the  homeward  voyage  in  the  island  of  Jamaica.  "  It 
is  not  easy  to  conceive,"  says  Macaulay,  "  that  fanaticism 
could  be  heated  to  a  higher  temperature  than  that  which  is 
indicated  by  the  writings  of  Shields.  Yet  there  was  then  in 
Scotland  an  enthusiasm  compared  with  which  the  enthusiasm 
of  even  this  man  was  lukewarm.  The  extreme  Covenanters 
protested  against  his  defection  as  vehemently  as  he  had  pro- 
tested against  the  Black  Indulgence  and  the  oath  of  suprem- 
acy."   It    should    be   added,    however,   that   he   afterward 


xii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

showed  the  same  moderated  enthusiasm  as  a  zealous  advocate 
of  church  unity  in  his  final  work  entitled  "  An  Inquiry  into 
Church  Communion." 

The  writer  of  these  notes  firmly  believed  that  genealogy 
was  an  important  part  of  history.  It  is  very  interesting  to 
see  how  much  the  inspiration  of  what  men  of  his  name  and 
his  blood  had  done  affected  his  own  life  work.  The  border- 
land and  marches  of  science,  literature,  and  philosophy  were 
the  scenes  of  his  labors  as  those  of  conterminous  kingdoms 
had  been  the  scenes  in  which  his  forbears  had  fought  and 
suffered  and  died  for  the  same  lofty  ideals  which  were  the 
mainspring  of  his  own  life:  ideals  expressed  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  by  the  unity  of  all  learning  and  the  unity 
of  the  whole  visible  Christian  church. 

The  remaining  portions  of  these  genealogical  notes  are 
scarcely  less  interesting,  although  they  are  historical  as  well 
as  personal  and  genealogical.  They  are  given  without  com- 
ment or  revision  because  they  need  neither. 


IV. 

In  the  colony  of  Virginia  since  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  there  have  been  three  distinct  settlements  of  the 
Shields  family.  They  were  successfully  planted  in  eastern 
Virginia,  in  the  valley  of  Virginia,  and  in  midland  Virginia, 
and  may  be  located  by  the  unquestioned  authority  of  Hen- 
ning  in  the  counties  of  York,  Augusta,  and  Halifax.  The 
name  also  appears  on  the  map  of  Virginia  as  a  place  name 
in  each  of  these  districts. 

The  first  settlement  was  made  probably  by  direct  migra- 
tion from  England  to  the  banks  of  the  James  River.  This 
branch  of  the  family  is  mentioned  occasionally  by  Bishop 
Meade  and  its  genealogy  has  been  sketched  by  President 
Lyon  G.  Tyler.  It  has  intermarried  with  the  families  of 
Marot,  Bray,  Minge,  Page,  Armistead,  Bryan,  and  Tyler 
and  it  became  distinguished  in  the  Reverend  Samuel  Shields 
of  the  colonial  church,   in  Colonel  James   Shields  of  the 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xiii 

Colonial  Army,  in  Captain  John  Shields  of  the  Revolution- 
ary Army,  and  more  recently  in  Dr.  William  J.  Shields  of 
Williamsburg   and  Dr.  Charles  H.  Shields  of  Richmond. 

The  second  settlement  was  made  by  emigration  from 
Scotland  and  north  Ireland  through  Pennsylvania  into  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  where,  by  the  liberal  policy  of  Governor 
Gooch,  the  Scotch-Irish  were  then  finding  a  refuge  from 
religious  persecution.  I  have  been  able  to  glean  but  little 
information  in  regard  to  this  settlement.  As  early  as 
1749  Thomas  Shields  purchased  a  portion  of  the  Beverly 
tract,  two  hundred  acres  in  extent,  for  six  shillings,  agree- 
ing to  pay  one  ear  of  Indian  corn  on  Lady  Day  next  to 
secure  possession.  There  is  also  on  record  an  inventory 
made  in  1750  of  the  estate  of  James  Shields,  full  of  interest- 
ing details  as  to  the  domestic  life  of  the  time  and  place. 
The  will  of  John  Shields,  freeholder,  is  recorded  in  1772, 
naming  his  wife  Margaret  and  children  John,  Thomas 
Robert,  Mary,  William.  It  is  probable  that  some  members 
of  this  family  did  military  duty  in  the  Colonial  and  Revolu- 
tionary Wars,  as  the  name  occurs  in  the  muster-rolls  of 
Colonel  Lewis,  of  Colonel  Hite  and  of  the  Muhlenburg  Regi- 
ment when  it  was  engaged  in  the  battles  of  Brandywine  and 
Germantown  and  encamped  at  Valley  Forge.  Beyond  these 
fragmentary  items,  no  fuller  information  has  been  obtained 
in  regard  to  the  Augusta  County  family. 

Distinct  from  these  two  settlements,  with  no  traceable 
connection  to  either  of  them,  a  third  Shields  settlement  was 
made  by  migration  into  Virginia  from  the  colonies  of 
Delaware  and  Maryland,  where,  as  appears  by  the  public 
records  of  those  States,  a  number  of  persons  of  the  name 
had  been  settled  for  one  or  two  generations.  As  early  as 
1654  the  Maryland  Archives  mention  Robert  Sheels,  and  in 
1689  Thomas  Shields,  and  in  1694  John  Shields.  There 
are  also  recorded  wills  in  Queen  Anne  County  of  Catherine 
Shields,  171 7;  and  of  Susanna  Shields,  1735;  in  Talbot 
County  of  James  Shields,  1759;  in  Somerset  County  of 
Elizabeth  Shields,  1766;  in  Frederick  County  of  Elizabeth 


xiv  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

Shields,  1769,  and  in  Newcastle  County,  Delaware,  of 
Robert  Shields,  1796.  The  Maryland  muster-rolls  of  the 
Revolutionary  Army  contain  the  names  of  Lieutenant  Archi- 
bald Shields,  Lieutenant  Caleb  Shields,  Captain  John 
Shields,  Commissary  Edward  Shields  and  Privates  James, 
John,  Patrick,  and  William  Shields. 

These  persons  were  probably  of  Scottish  or  Irish  origin 
and  naturally  Episcopalian ;  in  connection  with  the  estab- 
lished church  of  the  colony.  Of  some  of  them  but  little  has 
as  yet  been  ascertained,  but  it  is  positively  known  that  about 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  two  brothers,  Archibald 
and  Thomas  Shields,  of  Delaware,  married  two  sisters, 
Rebecca  and  Anne  Bayard,  daughters  of  Samuel  Bayard  of 
Bohemia  Manor,  Maryland,  from  whom  are  also  derived 
the  distinguished  Bayards  of  Delaware  and  New  Jersey. 
The  descendants  of  Archibald  Shields  have  been  widely 
scattered  throughout  the  Southern  States:  among  them  is 
the  Honorable  William  Bayard  Shields  of  the  United  States 
Court,  New  Orleans,  La.,  who  married  Victoire  Benoist, 
daughter  of  a  French  Catholic  refugee.  The  grandsons 
were  Thomas  Rodney  Shields,  William  Bayard  Shields,  the 
Honorable  Joseph  Dunbar  Shields  of  Natchez,  Miss.,  and 
Gabriel  Benoist  Shields.  The  great-grandsons  are  the  Rev- 
erend VanWinder  Shields,  D.  D.,  Rector  of  St.  John's 
Church,  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  and  Dr.  W.  B.  Shields  of  St. 
Francis,  Arkansas. 

The  other  brother,  Thomas  Shields,  who  married  Anne 
Bayard,  afterwards  settled  in  Virginia.  Among  his  descend- 
ants are  Colonel  John  Shields  of  Poplar  Vale,  Va.,  who 
married  Anna  Jane  Moncure,  daughter  of  a  certain  Mr. 
Robinson;  also  Lieutenant  Wilmer  Shields,  U.  S.  N.,  who 
was  son  of  Purser  Thomas  Shields,  and  married  Julia 
Devereux  Scott.  Also,  Wilmer  Shields,  who  married  Eliza 
Runkle,  daughter  of  Captain  Thomas  Conway  of  Pittsyl- 
vania County,  Va.  To  these  should  be  added  James  Shields, 
;on  of  the  first  Thomas,  who  was  born  near  Sassafras  River 
in  Delaware,  married  Elizabeth  Graham  of  Christiana,  and 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xv 

migrated  to  Halifax,  now  Pittsylvania  Co.,  Va.,  where  his 
family  was  seated  until  the  Revolutionary  War. 

At  this  point  it  will  be  interesting  to  notice  the  influence 
of  environment  as  well  as  heredity,  upon  family  character. 
During  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  com- 
munity dwelling  between  tide-water  and  the  mountains  on 
the  east  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge  was  as  intermediate  in  its 
characteristics  as  in  its  situation.  Therein  were  blended  the 
social  and  religious  elements  of  the  eastern  and  western  col- 
onists. It  should  be  remembered  that  in  contrast  with  the 
Puritan  of  New  England,  both  the  Covenanter  and  the  Cav- 
alier of  Virginia  had  been  Royalists,  devoted  to  the  house  of 
Stuart,  and  also  zealous  Churchmen,  the  one  attached  to 
Presbytery  and  the  other  to  Episcopacy.  When  united  under 
William  of  Orange,  they  had  settled  their  ecclesiastical  feud 
by  establishing  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Scotland  and  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  England.  And  not  long  afterwards  in 
the  New  World  they  found  themselves  again  neighbors  with 
only  the  Blue  Ridge  between  them ;  but  with  new  common 
interests  taking  the  place  of  the  old  border  warfare.  The 
tolerance  granted  to  the  Presbyterian  Churchmen  of  midland 
Virginia  was  altogether  creditable  to  the  colonial  govern- 
ors :  it  had  already  ample  legal  precedent  in  the  mother 
country  as  well  as  in  Virginia  law,  and  there  was  really 
nothing  now  to  prevent  the  free  intercourse  and  fusion  of 
the  two  races  and  creeds.  The  product  was  a  type  of  Vir- 
ginian, distinguishable  alike  from  the  luxurious  planter  of 
the  lowlands  and  from  the  hardy  freeholder  of  the  uplands, 
yet  retaining  much  that  was  best  in  both  of  these  stocks  with- 
out their  defects  and  vices. 

This  commingling  of  the  two  strains  showed  itself  not 
only  in  the  inherited  traits  of  individuals  and  families,  but 
also  in  certain  affinities  and  interchanges  which  have  long 
since  been  forgotten  or  but  seldom  noticed.  It  is  a  remark- 
able fact  that  some  great  political  leaders  like  Madison, 
Light-horse  Harry  Lee  and  even  Randolph  of  Roanoke  were 
not  educated  at  William  and  Mary,  but  at  Nassau  Hall  in 


xvi  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

the  school  of  statesmanship  founded  by  the  patriotic  Wither- 
spoon.  It  is  a  no  less  remarkable  fact  that  Princeton  Col- 
lege instead  of  looking  to  New  England  for  Presidents  such 
as  Dickinson,  Burr,  and  Edwards,  now  summoned  from  Vir- 
ginia the  eloquent  Davies,  who  was  Patrick  Henry's  model, 
the  accomplished  Stanhope  Smith,  who  was  President  of 
Hampden-Sydney,  and  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander,  also  Presi- 
dent of  Hampden-Sydney,  and  founder  of  the  Princeton 
School  of  Divinity.  Thus  it  was  that  the  seeds  of  old  civili- 
zations as  transplanted  to  a  new  soil,  flowered  into  a  new 
form  of  culture  as  strong  as  it  was  graceful. 

Besides  this  difference  between  eastern  and  western  Vir- 
ginia, there  was  a  still  further  difference  of  social  atmos- 
phere between  the  northern  and  southern  sections  of  mid- 
land Virginia. 

It  may  not  be  easily  explained,  but  it  appeared  in  the  im- 
passioned genius  of  Patrick  Henry  and  John  Randolph  as 
:ompared  with  the  trained  statesmanship  of  Jefferson  and 
Madison.  It  appeared  still  more  strongly  in  the  Presby- 
:erian  College  in  Prince  Edward  as  contrasted  with  the 
iberal  University  afterwards  founded  at  Charlottesville. 
\nd  it  also  appeared  in  the  gradual  decline  of  the  Cavalier 
ind  Episcopal  elements  in  the  southern  counties.  It  would 
ieem  that  these  counties,  after  having  been  devastated  by  two 
:ivil  wars  and  drained  of  their  best  blood  by  emigration  to 
he  Western  States,  now  retain  but  little  of  their  former  pres- 
ige.  Bishop  Meade  in  his  day  lamented  the  extinction  of  the 
Ihurch  throughout  this  region  and  remarked  that  the  names 
if  such  churchmen  as  Madison,  Henry,  Read,  Carington, 
Vatkins,  Venable  are  no  longer  to  be  found  in  the  vestry- 
ecords  of  parishes  though  enrolled  among  the  trustees  of 
iampden-Sydney  College.  John  Randolph  bitterly  deplored 
he  decay  of  the  gentry  in  the  county  of  Charlotte  where  he 
ved,  attributing  its  degeneracy  to  the  attacks  of  Jefferson 
pon  the  church  establishment  and  the  law  of  primogeniture, 
"he  old  regime,  however,  still  lingered  some  time  after  the 
devolution.      Dr.   James  W.  Alexander  depicted  it  as  it 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xvii 

existed  in  his  father's  time.  There  is  no  portion  of  the  State 
or  country  where  the  bright  side  of  the  planter's  life  is  more 
agreeably  exhibited.  The  district  has  always  been  remark- 
able for  its  adaptation  to  the  culture  of  a  particular  variety  of 
tobacco  which  usually  commands  high  prices,  and  it  has 
therefore  abounded  in  slaves,  although  the  estates  are  less 
extensive  than  in  the  cotton  districts  of  the  remote  South. 
The  proprietors  enjoy  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life  in 
a  high  degree,  and  almost  every  family  has  some  man  of 
liberal  education  within  its  bosom.  Hospitality  and  genial 
warmth  may  be  said  to  be  universal.  Nowhere  in  the  South 
has  the  Presbyterian  Church  had  greater  strength  among 
the  wealthy  and  cultivated  classes.  Dr.  William  Henry 
Foote  skilfully  traces  the  same  society  to  its  sources  and 
elements :  "  Coming  from  different  divisions  of  the  European 
stock,  mingling  in  society  on  the  frontiers,  amalgamating 
by  marriage,  moulded  by  the  religious  teachings  of  Robinson 
and  Davies,  they  formed  a  state  of  society  and  morals  in 
which  the  excellencies  of  the  original  constituent  parts  have 
all  been  preserved.  The  courtly  manners  of  Williamsburg, 
the  cheerfulness  and  ease  of  the  Huguenots,  the  honest 
frankness  and  stern  independence  of  the  English  country 
gentleman,  the  activity  and  shrewdness  of  the  merchant,  the 
simplicity  of  republican  life — all  have  been  preserved." 

Into  this  frontier  region  in  1757  came  certain  members 
of  the  Shields  family  of  Delaware  through  Maryland  down 
the  Chesapeake  Bay.  The  first  of  the  name  on  record  was 
Patrick  Shields,  of  the  County  of  Halifax  and  Colony  of 
Virginia,  planter,  who  for  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
pounds  purchased  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  rich 
tobacco-growing  land  on  Sandy  River,  next  to  Colonel 
Byrd's  tract,  the  "  Land  of  Eden,"  and  not  far  from  Leather- 
wood,  the  purchase  of  Patrick  Henry.  During  his  lifetime 
he  deeded  portions  of  this  land  to  his  children  Samuel, 
James,  John,  and  Elizabeth  Read,  and  by  his  will,  September 
22nd,  1770,  he  bequeathed  his  own  plantation  to  his  wife 
Jeane  and  son  Joseph,  together  with  a  negro  servant  Phyllis 


xviii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

and  a  roan  mare  and  colt ;  also  50  pounds  to  his  son  Robert, 
and  10  pounds  to  his  "  grandson  Patrick  and  son  of  Samuel." 
The  will  is  conventional  in  form,  beginning  with  a  confession 
of  his  Christian  faith  in  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection. 

The  next  interesting  record  nine  years  afterwards  is 
another  will  so  much  briefer  that  I  will  cite  the  whole  of  it : 

In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  I,  James  Shields,  of  Pitt- 
sylvania County,  Virginia,  being  in  perfect  health,  mind,  and 
memory,  do  constitute,  make  and  ordain  this  my  last  will 
and  testament  in  manner  and  form  following : 

And  first  of  all  my  lawful  debts  to  be  paid.  And  to  my 
beloved  wife  Elizabeth  I  give  and  bequeath  her  third  of 
my  estate,  and  to  my  son  Patrick  I  give  and  bequeath  the 
other  third  of  my  real  and  personal  estate,  and  to  Molly  my 
daughter  the  other  part.  I  also  will  and  desire  that  my  son 
Patrick  over  and  above  his  share  have  so  much  to  be  paid 
from  my  estate  as  will  pay  his  learning  through  the  several 
degrees  of  the  college :  and  I  do  hereby  constitute  my  beloved 
wife  my  whole  and  sole  executrix  of  this  my  last  will  and 
testament,  and  do  hereby  revoke,  disallow  and  annul  all  for- 
mer will  or  wills  whatsoever,  and  do  make  and  confirm  this 
only  to  be  my  last  will  and  testament.  As  witness  my  hand 
and  seal  this  third  day  of  August  in  the  year  one  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  seventy-nine. 

And  as  my  wife  is  with  child  if  the  child  lives  I  desire  that 
it  may  have  its  due  and  equal  share  of  my  estate. 

James  Shields  (L.  S.). 
Teste 

John  Smith, 

Samuel  Shields, 

Joshua  Cantrill. 

This  document,  brought  to  light  after  a  lapse  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-five  years,  is  a  remarkable  confirmation  of 
family  tradition  in  every  particular.  It  was  evidently  writ- 
ten somewhat  hurriedly,  in  view  of  the  fate  which  might 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xix 

befall  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution.  One  may  fancy  him  ten- 
derly leaving  the  paper  with  his  wife,  as  he  rode  away  never 
to  return.  The  disastrous  siege  of  Savannah  followed  on 
October  ioth,  and  the  will  was  probated  December  21st, 
1779.  The  executrix  and  "beloved  wife  Elizabeth"  was 
the  above-named  Elizabeth  Graham  of  Christiana. 

In  reference  to  the  family  of  Elizabeth  Graham  some 
traditions  may  here  be  interesting.  Her  father,  a  Coven- 
anter as  well  as  a  Graham,  had  narrowly  escaped  the  sword 
thrust  of  another  Graham  before  he  fled  to  the  Colonies. 
The  story  runs  in  the  family  that  the  dragoons  of  bloody 
Claverhouse  thrust  their  swords  into  the  very  thicket  in 
which  he  was  concealed,  but  without  discovering  him.  He 
crossed  the  sea  in  the  same  ship  with  the  family  into  which 
his  daughter  afterwards  married.  The  two  families  before 
their  emigration,  it  is  said,  lived  on  opposite  sides  of  the  Irish 
Channel  where  it  was  so  narrow  that  they  could  tell  when  it 
was  washing  day  on  the  other  shore  by  descrying  the  clothes 
hung  to  dry.  It  is  also  said  that  Graham  on  settling  in 
Delaware  built  his  house  in  part  of  bricks  brought  with  him 
in  the  vessel  and  marked  with  his  initials,  and  as  late  as  1821 
Senator  Tipton,  a  friend  of  the  family,  reported  that  he  had 
seen  the  house  and  noticed  the  initials.  Beyond  such  home- 
like traditions  there  are  no  European  annals  of  Elizabeth's 
family.  Her  little,  worn  Bible  which  she  bequeathed  to  the 
oldest  son  of  the  oldest  son,  because  of  its  register  showing 
title  to  Scottish  properties,  has  come  to  her  great-grandson, 
water-stained,  tattered,  and  alas,  without  the  register.  It 
was  accidentally  dropped  into  a  stream  which  was  being 
forded  by  another  ancestor  on  one  of  his  preaching  excur- 
sions. The  lost  pedigree  might  have  helped  to  decide 
whether  she  came  from  the  Grahams  of  Menteith,  or  of  the 
Grahams  of  Montrose,  who  boasted  of  the  handsome  and 
gallant  Dundee,  as  much  praised  by  the  Cavaliers  as  he  was 
hated  by  the  Covenanters. 

But  to  return  to  the  will.  The  unborn  child  proved  to  be 
another  daughter.     Left  alone  with  three  young  children 


XX 


Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 


and  in  charge  of  a  plantation,  Elizabeth  Graham  Shields 
married  a  neighboring  planter,  General  Burnett,  whose  name 
was  gratefully  given  to  one  of  her  grandsons,  Henry  Bur- 
nett Shields.  Her  two  daughters  married  husbands  who 
rose  to  wealth  and  public  office  in  Tennessee.  Her  son 
Patrick,  so  thoughtfully  provided  for  in  the  will,  became 
Judge  Shields  of  Corydon,  Indiana.  He  was  born  in  Pitt- 
sylvania, May  17th,  1773.  His  boyhood  was  passed  in  the 
Virginia  plantation  mode  of  life  with  the  church  and  school 
at  home  and  in  a  neighborhood  then  exceptionally  good. 
Dr.  Archibald  Alexander  thus  notices  it  in  his  Journal: 
"  Tuesday,  August  7th,  1792,  I  preached  at  Sandy  River. 
The  house  was  very  full  of  people  who  seemed  desirous  to 
hear.  I  don't  remember  that  any  to  whom  I  have  preached 
since  I  was  on  my  tour  were  apparently  more  affected  than 
these."  One  of  these  listeners  may  have  been  young  Patrick, 
then  nineteen  years  old.  In  accordance  with  his  father's 
will  he  was  educated  for  the  law  in  Hampden-Sydney 
Academy  and  William  and  Mary  College. 

To  his  uncle's  name  Patrick  his  parents  had  added  the 
name  Henry  in  compliment  to  their  intimate  friend  the 
patriot  orator,  but  in  after  life  he  preferred  to  write  his  name 
simply  "  P.  Shields."  I  have,  however,  official  documents 
signed  "  P.  Henry  Shields."  The  boy  was  educated  care- 
fully, according  to  his  father's  directions.  At  one  time 
William  Henry  Harrison,  the  future  President,  was  his  class- 
mate and  thus  became  his  lifelong  friend.  On  the  sixth 
of  December,  1798,  he  was  married  to  Mary,  daughter  of 
Rev.  Clement  Nance,  by  his  cousin  Rev.  James  Read.  The 
Nances  were  an  old  Virginia  family,  first  seated  as  early  as 
1 64 1  in  Henrico  County,  from  thence  migrating  into  other 
counties  and  intermarrying  through  successive  generations 
with  Isham,  Vaughn,  Lanier,  Giles,  Palmer,  and  Pleasant. 
After  the  Revolution  Clement  Nance  removed  with  his 
family  to  the  Northwest  Territory.  It  was  not  long  before 
his  son-in-law  decided  to  follow  him,  drawn  into  the  general 
westward  movement. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxi 

His  father's  estate,  which  was  valued  at  seventeen  thousand 
pounds,  having-  become  depreciated  through  the  failure  of  the 
Continental  currency,  he  surrendered  the  home  plantation  to 
his  mother  and  sisters  and  accepted  as  his  portion  two  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  wild  land  in  the  Elue 
Grass  region  of  Kentucky,  which  was  then  still  the  County 
or  District  of  Virginia.  About  the  year  1803,  with  his  wife, 
two  young  children,  and  a  negro  servant,  Sam,  and  doubtless 
other  emigrating  families,  he  made  the  long  and  difficult 
journey  over  the  mountains  into  Kentucky.  On  arriving 
at  Lexington  he  found  that  owing  to  the  dishonesty  of  a 
business  agent,  made  easy  enough  by  the  chaotic  state  of 
land  titles  at  that  time,  he  was  unable  to  secure  possession  of 
his  land  and  must  simply  begin  the  world  anew.  For  a 
time  he  remained  with  some  of  his  Graham  connections  in 
Mercer  County,  but  at  length  he  decided  to  join  his  wife's 
relatives  beyond  the  Ohio  River,  where  land  was  more  easily 
obtained. 

With  his  family,  household  goods,  and  cattle  in  a  flatboat, 
he  floated  down  the  Kentucky  and  Ohio  rivers  to  a  point 
below  the  Falls  where  his  relatives,  having  seen  the  boat 
approaching,  were  waiting  to  welcome  him  after  the  long 
separation  with  hysterical  tears  of  joy.  In  the  unbroken 
wilderness  he  entered  a  section  of  land ;  this  time  with  no 
flaw  upon  the  title.  Upon  my  study  wall  now  hangs  the 
parchment  deed  to  this  tract  signed  by  President  Monroe  as 
recorded  in  the  general  land  office  at  Washington.  Here 
with  the  aid  of  his  servant  was  cleared  the  first  patch  of 
ground  in  the  wilderness  and  the  first  crop  of  grain  was 
raised  only  to  be  destroyed  by  severe  frost  in  autumn.  A 
local  chronicler  describes  the  cabin  which  he  erected  as  much 
better  than  those  of  that  time:  "  It  was  built  almost  entirely 
of  blue  ash  logs  and  nearly  full  two  stories  in  height. 
Shields  in  a  short  time  gathered  around  him  a  settlement 
of  some  size  and  wielded  considerable  influence  among  the 
settlers."  His  spacious  cabin  being  the  most  commodious 
in  the  neighborhood  became  almost  a  public  resort,  the  place 


xxii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

where  political  and  religious  meetings  were  held.  It  was 
also  for  a  time  the  seat  of  the  Territorial  authorities  until  the 
government  was  established  in  the  neighboring  village  of 
Corydon.  The  building  was  in  due  time  replaced  by  a  more 
commodious  brick  building,  styled  by  the  ruder  settlers — 
the  folly  of  "  stuck-up  "  Virginians. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Shields  was  the  pioneer  of  all  that 
band  of  Virginians,  a  score  or  more  of  families  that  sub- 
sequently followed  his  lead  and  became  citizens  of  this  town- 
ship. He  was  soon,  on  December  8th,  1808,  commissioned  by 
his  old  classmate  Governor  William  Henry  Harrison  as  judge 
of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  the  first  appointment  of  this 
kind  for  the  territory,  which  then  included  the  region  since 
divided  into  the  States  of  Indiana,  Michigan,  and  Illinois. 
In  181 1  he  went  to  the  defence  of  the  border  with  General 
Harrison  as  a  mounted  rifleman  and  volunteer  aide.  In  the 
battle  of  Tippecanoe  his  horse  received  a  bullet  in  the  head, 
but  was  not  killed  and  was  safely  brought  back  home  with 
him  again.  When  Indiana  became  a  separate  territory 
under  Governor  Posey,  January  7th,  18 14,  he  was  com- 
missioned judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Harrison  County, 
the  first  president  judge  in  that  territory;  and  in  the  year 
18 1 6  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Con- 
vention which  met  at  Corydon  for  the  organization  of  the 
Territory  into  a  State. 


These  pages  were  written  by  Dr.  Shields  in  his  seventy- 
ninth  year  and  amply  suffice  to  show  that  his  force  was  not 
in  the  least  abated.  Their  interest  is  far  from  being  either 
personal  or  local,  for  they  are  a  contribution  to  American 
history  as  showing  the  sources  of  the  strength  and  culture 
characteristic  of  many  small  but  vigorous  communities 
through  the  central  and  further  West.  Though  life  was 
very  primitive  in  Corydon,  Indiana,  the  people  had  as  their 
leaders  men  of  the  first  importance  from  the  viewpoint  of 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxiii 

education,  family,  and  energy.  As  the  years  went  on  and 
material  prosperity  blessed  the  efforts  of  the  pioneers,  they 
gave  the  same  attention  to  their  intellectual  and  spiritual 
necessities  as  they  gave  to  their  bodies  and  their  estates. 
Churches  and  schools  were  established  on  firm  foundations, 
their  sons  and  daughters  were  trained  in  piety  and  patriotism. 
When  James  Read  Shields,  son  of  Patrick  Henry,  came  to 
man's  estate  he  sought  and  found  a  wife  among  the  best  and 
most  refined  families  of  the  East.  Being  president  of  the 
bank  of  New  Albany  in  the  State  of  his  birth,  and  a  ruling 
elder  in  the  Presbyterian  church  of  the  same  town,  he  mar- 
ried Hannah  Woodruff  of  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey. 

This  was  the  fact  which  determined  the  career  of  the  only 
child  of  the  marriage,  who  was  born  on  April  fourth  of  the 
following  year  at  his  father's  home  in  New  Albany.  The 
ancestors  of  Hannah  Woodruff  for  four  generations  on  both 
sides  lie  buried  in  the  graveyard  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Elizabeth.  They  were  descendants  of  a  well- 
known  Yorkshire  family,  which  emigrated  to  Massachusetts 
in  1638,  went  thence  to  Southampton,  Long  Island,  and  with 
a  number  of  others  removed  thence  to  the  Carteret  district 
of  New  Jersey.  They  were  a  line  of  devout  Presbyterian 
church  folk.  Mrs.  Shields  was  trained  in  the  "  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord  "  as  her  parents  understood  it,  and 
her  well-worn  books  of  devotion  were  a  cherished  possession 
of  her  son.  She  is  well  remembered  by  the  present  distin- 
guished Chancellor  of  the  State,  William  J.  Magie,  who 
recalls  that  she  was  a  famous  Bible  scholar.  Her  pastor, 
the  Rev.  John  McDowell,  D.  D.,  a  Princeton  graduate  of 
1 80 1,  and  a  founder  of  the  Princeton  Seminary,  received  into 
the  church  the  grandmother  of  Dr.  Shields  and,  by  both 
baptism  and  confession,  his  mother:  he  likewise  delivered 
the  charge  at  the  installation  of  her  son  as  a  minister,  and 
baptized  his  oldest  daughter. 

Samuel  Woodruff,  one  of  the  same  family,  had  long 
since  identified  the  family  with  the  interests  of  Princeton 
College,  an  institution  founded  to  represent  the  religious 


xxiv  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

culture  which,  by  a  larger  catholicity,  had  outgrown  the  con- 
servative type  from  which  it  had  sprung.  He  was  a  trustee 
from  its  founding  in  1749  to  his  death  in  1768,  and  is  the 
first  to  have  remembered  that  institution  by  a  bequest.  He 
was  a  prosperous  merchant  and  a  pillar  of  the  church.  In 
the  founding  of  the  college  he  was,  of  course,  intimately 
associated  with  all  the  leading  spirits  of  the  time  and  place, 
in  particular  with  Boudinot,  Stockton,  and  Belcher  the  gov- 
ernor of  the  province,  he  himself  being  a  member  of  the 
Council.  The  society  from  which  the  founders  of  Princeton 
stood  forth  had  a  marked  character,  being  both  aristocratic 
in  feeling  and  ecclesiastical  in  its  standards.  Dr.  Shields 
wrote  of  it  in  this  connection,  as  follows :  "  Between  the  ex- 
tremes of  Northern  and  Southern  culture,  it  laid  stress  upon 
forms,  and  titles,  and  costumes,  while  insisting  on  the  claims 
of  virtue  and  piety.  There  was  in  it  a  touch  of  English 
gentility  over  the  harshness  of  the  Puritan,  the  strictness 
of  the  Covenanter,  the  staidness  of  the  Hollander,  the  prim- 
ness of  the  Quaker,  the  grace  of  the  Huguenot,  and  the 
gayety  of  the  Cavalier.  At  one  time,  indeed,  all  these  ele- 
ments seemed  to  have  been  fused  together  under  the  elo- 
quence of  that  Presbyterian  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  George  Whitefield,  who  was  then  traversing  the 
colonies,  like  another  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  The  Rev- 
erend Mr.  Chandler,  Missionary  to  the  little  flock  of  St. 
John,  wrote  home  to  the  London  Society  in  disgust,  that 
schism  was  becoming  a  mere  "  ecclesiastical  scarecrow," 
churchmen  and  dissenters  being  so  mixed  up  together 
that  they  would  not  discriminate  between  "  Episcopal  and 
ye  leathern  mitted  ordination  "  which  his  neighbor,  the  Rev- 
erend Jonathan  Dickinson,  had  been  defending  in  sundry 
learned  essays.  The  preceding  rector,  good  old  Mr.  Vaugn, 
had  died  on  the  same  day  with  Dickinson,  exclaiming,  when 
told  that  his  friend  was  also  dying,  "  Oh,  that  I  had  hold 
of  the  skirts  of  brother  Jonathan!  "  This  passage  has  been 
quoted  because,  in  its  literal  truth,  the  writer  was  holding  up 
the  mirror  for  himself  as  a  sitter  for  his  own  portrait. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxv 

Dr.  Shields  was  in  a  marked  degree  what  inheritance 
made  him,  a  man  of  exactly  this  social  and  ecclesiastical 
mould. 

In  response  to  a  request  for  a  few  intimate  details  concern- 
ing the  mother  whose  influence  was  almost  paramount  in 
her  father's  life,  Mrs.  Stockton,  of  Morven,  writes: 

My  grandmother's  marriage  was  looked  upon  by  her 
large  family  connection,  then  living  in  Elizabethtown  and 
New  York,  as  cutting  her  off  entirely  from  her  family  and 
almost  from  civilization,  and  so  it  was  natural  that  my 
father  should  have  been  sent  to  her  sister,  Phebe  (Wood- 
ruff) Rankin,  in  Newark,  to  be  educated. 

New  Albany,  where  my  father  lived  in  1837,  was  a  very 
primitive  place  at  that  time;  the  first  Presbyterian  church, 
and  the  different  clergymen  who  supplied  its  pulpit,  were 
the  only  social  interests  of  the  town.  My  grandmother, 
although  of  English  descent,  was  much  more  the  type  of  a 
Scotch  Presbyterian,  and  my  father  has  often  told  me  of  the 
breakfasts  his  mother  used  to  give  to  the  visiting  clergymen, 
a  custom  still  quite  common  in  Scotland. 

She  also  held  "  parlor  meetings,"  or  ladies'  prayer-meet- 
ings, at  her  house  on  Main  Street,  which  had  a  beautiful 
garden  running  down  to  the  Ohio  River,  "  planted  with 
borders  and  shrubberies,"  of  which  my  grandmother  took 
personal  care. 

My  grandfather  has  left  this  description  of  her,  which  he 
wrote  for  his  eldest  granddaughter : 

"  She  was  a  little  below  the  ordinary  size  of  women,  well 
favored  and  straight  in  her  person.  Her  forehead  high, 
her  features  good,  complexion  fair,  with  a  well-shaped  nose 
resting  between  her  gray  or  hazel  eyes — her  countenance 
on  the  whole  was  that  of  serenity  and  sense,  attractive  to 
all,  being  entirely  destitute  of  that  doll-faced  beauty  that 
is  so  prominent  in  the  features  of  many  women ;  one 
look  at  her  invited  a  second  and  then  a  third ;  she  was 
rather  retiring  and  modest  in  her  deportment;  she  rose 
early,  delighted  much  in  flowers,  and  employed  her  leisure 


xxvi  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

moments  in  reading.  The  Bible  was  her  first  book,  then 
the  religious  books  and  papers  of  the  day.  She  was  mild 
and  amiable  in  disposition,  and  very  kind  to  those  who  came 
within  reach  of  her  acquaintance;  very  conscientious  in  the 
discharge  of  her  duties  to  God  and  her  fellow  beings,  be- 
nevolent to  the  poor  and  the  church ;  cheerful,  but  not  given 
to  levity. 

"  For  upwards  of  thirty  years  we  lived  together  in  peace, 
sharing  in  each  other's  joys  and  sorrows  until  the  evening 
of  August  21st,  1856,  when  she  ceased  to  be  with  me." 

After  her  death  it  was  found  that  she  had  treasured  every 
letter  her  only  child  had  ever  written  her,  and  even  those 
from  her  own  people  in  which  his  name  was  mentioned. 

In  contrast  to  the  austere  life  led  by  my  grandmother 
in  the  West,  I  quote  from  a  letter  written  at  Elizabethtown 
in  the  first  year  of  her  marriage.  "  We  have  had  a  visit  from 
Lafayette,  and  a  most  splendid  bower  was  erected  for  his 
reception ;  I  blistered  my  hands  tying  greens  for  it,  but  it 
paid  with  the  honor  of  shaking  hands  with  the  general. 
Hannah !  he  looks  very  much  like  Mr.  Nelson,  on  the  hill, 
so  you  can  fancy  you  have  seen  him;  our  bower,  it  is  said, 
stands  next  to  Castle  Garden  (the  port  on  the  battery)  ;  I 
was  in  it  one  evening,  previous  to  his  arrival,  and  it  really 
appeared  like  enchantment ;  it  is,  Hannah,  indescribable ;  I 
have  just  finished  his  memoirs,  which  have  been  published 
since  his  arrival  here.    They  are  very  interesting." 

My  father  was  baptized  by  the  Reverend  M.  R.  Welles, 
pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  His  early  childhood 
was  very  lonely ;  his  mother  was  his  only  companion  as  well 
as  teacher.  When  he  was  three  years  old,  he  read  the  first 
chapter  of  St.  John's  Gospel  at  her  knee.  He  had  many 
salutary  lessons  from  her.  As  he  has  somewhere  written 
he  began  during  this  time  to  write  a  journal  of  resolu- 
tions and  penitential  confessions,  such  as  he  had  read  in  the 
memoirs  of  some  precocious  young  saint  of  the  day.  But 
his  wise  mother,  pointing  out  its  marks  of  conceit  and  vanity, 
promptly  suppressed  the  effusion.     These  lonely  days  play- 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxvii 

ing  by  her  side  in  the  sunny  garden  readily  account  for  his 
shyness  and  reserve.  He  had  no  playmates  until  he  went 
to  school  in  Newark  in  1837. 

In  1839  he  and  two  of  his  schoolmates  owned  a  small 
printing  press,  and  for  a  few  months  "  The  Aurora,"  a 
monthly  paper,  Printed,  Published  and  Edited  by  Shields, 
Butler  &  Co.,  was  the  fruit  of  their  leisure  hours.  This 
child's  paper  was  largely  subscribed  for  by  "  The  Aunts  " 
living  in  the  East,  and  its  poetical  effusions  were  contributed 
by  the  young  ladies  of  the  neighborhood. 

My  father's  maternal  grandmother,  Mary  (Mulford) 
Woodruff,  daughter  of  Lewis  Mulford  III  and  wife  of  Par- 
sons Woodruff,  was  much  interested  in  his  spiritual  welfare ; 
in  1838  she  writes :  "  Give  Charles  my  love  and  tell  him  that 
I  was  much  gratified  to  see  that  he  was  attending  to  so  many 
studies,  and  especially  the  Bible  class.  I  hope  he  will  be 
thankful  that  his  parents  can  give  him  so  good  an  education, 
which  is  the  best  of  gifts."  When  she  was  told  that  he  had 
joined  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  1841,  and  was  to  be  sent 
to  college,  she  writes:  "I  think  there  is  a  blessing  that 
attended  you  that  your  child  should  be  brought  out  of  nat- 
ural darkness.  I  hope  he  will  press  forward  to  the  prize  of 
the  high  calling.  I  feel  gratified  to  have  one  of  my  grand- 
children a  professional  character." 

She  lived  until  she  was  eighty-five,  and  kept  constantly  in 
touch  with  her  grandson.  He  was  expected  to  pay  his  re- 
spects to  her  on  coming  and  going  to  college.  In  1843  she 
writes  again :  "  Professor  McLean  called  here  during  the 
vacation.  I  told  him  I  thought  Charles  would  be  home-sick, 
as  he  never  had  been  away  from  home.  He  said  if  he 
was  he  would  send  him  on  to  spend  a  few  days  with  us, 
but  as  he  did  not  come  we  concluded  he  is  very  well 
contented." 

While  my  father  was  in  the  seminary  she  writes:  "  You 
wish  to  know  what  we  think  of  Charles;  we  are  all  very 
much  pleased  with  his  visit.  He  has  improved  greatly  in 
regard  to  his  diffidence;  you  will  no  doubt  be  pleased  to  hear 


xxviii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

that  he  asked  a  blessing  at  the  table  with  perfect  confidence, 
while  Mr.  Wood  and  Mr.  Millpaugh  were  both  present." 

My  father's  letters  gave  detailed  accounts  of  his  holidays 
spent  with  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Rankin,  his  uncle,  Archibald 
Woodruff,  at  whose  "  establishment  in  Newark  "  his  grand- 
mother lived  after  her  husband's  death,  and  in  New  York, 
at  20  Spring  Street,  with  his  aunt,  Charity  Wood,  of  whom 
he  was  very  fond. 

VI. 

Having  been  a  diligent  student  at  the  New  Albany  high 
school,  the  boy  of  twelve  was  quite  ready  for  better  training 
than  New  Albany  could  afford.  Accordingly  his  education 
was  not  interrupted  by  his  entrance  on  the  work  of  the 
Newark  Academy,  already  a  famous  school.  Four  years 
sufficed  to  prepare  him  for  Princeton,  as  a  sophomore  at 
least,  and  possibly  a  junior.  The  summer  of  1842  he  spent 
at  home,  and  on  October  31  he  started  for  the  college,  already 
so  dear  to  him,  in  company  with  two  friends.  From  this 
time  onward,  for  some  years,  his  letters  to  his  mother  and 
other  relatives  contained  many  things  of  general  interest. 
He  traveled  by  boat  to  Wheeling,  thence  by  stage  to  Harper's 
Ferry,  Washington,  and  Baltimore,  and  thence  by  train  to 
Philadelphia,  and  Princeton,  which  he  reached  on  November 
9.  The  cost  of  this  journey  was  thirty-three  dollars  and  six 
cents.     The  careful  accounting  is  characteristic. 

Presenting  himself  as  a  candidate  for  the  junior  class,  he 
was  examined  by  Vice-President  McLean  and  Professor 
Topping.  They  found  him,  for  so  high  a  standing,  deficient 
in  the  languages,  and  advised  him  to  enter  the  sophomore 
class;  but  as  they  did  not  forbid  him  trying  to  join  the 
higher  one  he  concluded  so  to  do,  and  easily  made  good  all 
deficiencies.  His  college  bill  was  a  hundred  and  six  dollars 
and  eight  cents ;  this  he  paid  immediately  and  further  bought 
furniture  costing  fourteen  dollars.  He  then  established  him- 
self with  his  friend,  Walter  Mann,  at  No.  20  East  College, 
and  was  ready  for  the  work  and  play  of  college  life. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxix 

As  might  be  expected  from  one  of  his  birth  and  training 
his  first  impressions  of  Princeton  relate  to  its  religious  char- 
acter. More  than  a  third  of  the  students,  he  wrote,  are 
professors  of  religion,  and  many  others  are  seriously  dis- 
posed. The  religious  restraint  cast  around  them  is  very 
great.  Beside  daily  prayers  in  the  chapel  there  are  also 
nightly  prayer-meetings,  conducted  by  some  of  the  faculty 
and  pious  students,  lectures  on  Monday  evenings,  Bible 
lessons,  etc.,  etc.  Within  less  than  three  weeks  he  had  him- 
self joined  the  Philadelphian  Society,  and  had  signed  a  con- 
stitution drawn  up  in  the  handwriting  of  James  B.  Taylor, 
who.  in  his  own  words,  was  the  founder  and  chief  member 
of  the  society — a  society,  it  may  be  remarked  in  passing, 
which  was  the  forerunner  and  almost  the  parent  of  all  the 
numerous  religious  associations  of  students  in  American 
colleges.  Further,  the  students  were  not  permitted  to  leave 
the  grounds  on  a  Sunday,  except  by  special  dispensation. 

The  routine  of  his  life  is  graphically  described :  A  little 
after  six  in  the  morning  we  have  what  is  called  a  "  rouser," 
a  term  most  significant  of  its  use.  It  consists  of  a  most 
melodious  concert  of  bells  and  horns  (one  of  the  latter  is 
blown  in  each  entry  of  the  different  colleges)  together  with 
the  howling  of  neighboring  dogs  by  way  of  a  symphony. 
This  should  effectually  rouse  most  of  the  students,  it  would 
seem ;  I  have  slept  through  it  once,  notwithstanding.  After 
a  half  an  hour  for  dressing  the  college  bell  rings  for  prayers. 
At  prayer-hall  the  roll  is  called,  delinquents  marked,  a 
chapter  read,  and  a  prayer  made  by  one  of  the  tutors.  At 
eight  we  go  to  breakfast.  Study  hours  are  nine  to  eleven, 
recitation  till  twelve,  and  so  on  for  the  remainder  of  the  day. 
The  students  generally  walk  after  evening  prayers  till  supper, 
and  we  have  some  beautiful  walks.  Professor  McLean's 
prayer-meeting  (comes)  immediately  after  supper,  Thurs- 
day evenings  a  lecture  at  Dr.  Rice's  church  from  either  him- 
self, Professor  McLean  or  Alexander  alternately(  ?)  in  the 
sophomore  recitation  room,  which  we  of  course  attend. 
After  prayer-meeting  Walter  and  I  trim  our  study  lamp  and 


xxx  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

seat  ourselves  by  a  good  grate  fire  to  study.  The  sermons 
we  have  in  prayer-hall  are  of  a  strange  order.  It  is  a  diffi- 
cult thing  to  please  the  students,  and  some  of  the  professors 
seem  to  bend  their  efforts  to  obviate  this  difficulty.  What 
would  you  think  of  a  grave  metaphysical  discourse  (Dr. 
Hodge  of  the  Seminary)  on  the  "  existence  of  the  Deity  "  ? 
A  sermon  (Professor  Dod)  on  the  best  method  of  study? 

Throughout  these  and  all  his  letters  there  is  constant  and 
tender  mention  of  home  affairs,  with  never  ending  expres- 
sions of  affection.  His  first  examination  closed  on  January 
28th,  1843.  He  felt  some  uneasiness  as  to  gaining  distinc- 
tion in  mathematics,  and  he  did  not.  There  is  mention  of 
his  regular  reading  of  the  "  Observer  "  and  the  "  Presbyte- 
rian " :  also  of  careful  study  in  "  Alexander's  Evidences  " 
and  "  Locke's  Essay."  His  time,  he  found,  was  almost  en- 
grossed by  his  studies,  and  by  the  constant,  faithful  per- 
formance of  his  religious  duties. 

A  letter  of  September  2nd,  1843,  's  veiT  interesting:  I 
have  become  attached  to  study,  he  writes.  What  in  the 
first  place  necessity  imposed,  habit  has  consented  to,  and 
fastened  upon  me.  The  natural  offspring  of  this  is  a  thirst 
after  truth.  We  juniors  are  now  beginning  to  come  in 
possession  of  the  seniors'  peculiar  privileges.  We  have 
a  lecture  in  the  morning  (of  which  we  are  obliged  to  take 
notes,  and  which  we  are  obliged  to  transcribe  neatly  in  a 
large  blank-book,  together  with  drawings  and  illustrations, 
to  be  subjected  to  the  supervision  of  the  professor)  and  in 
the  afternoon  a  recitation  upon  it.  The  last  week  we  had 
Professor  Dod  on  architecture.  He  is  a  splendid  lecturer  and 
has,  besides  his  class,  an  audience  of  the  ladies  and  gentle- 
men from  out  in  the  town.  I  have  been  delighted  with  the 
subject,  and  especially  with  the  method  in  which  he  presents 
it.  I  do  not  believe  that,  in  aptness  and  facility  of  utterance, 
there  is  his  equal  in  the  United  States.  He  completely 
carries  you  away  and  makes  you  feel  like  another  being, 
even  on  such  a  plaything  as  architecture.  Oh,  two  sermons 
which  I  have  heard  from  him  this  session,  I  can  never  forget ! 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxxi 

They  have  sunk  into  my  heart.  He  is  the  greatest  man  that 
e\  er  came  under  my  personal  observation.  He  has  his  mind 
completely  under  control — can  do  with  it  what  he  pleases, 
and  it  is  remarkable  that  he  never  fails  of  making  his  sen- 
tences intelligible,  is  never  confused  and  indistinct  in  his 
words,  has  neither  too  many  nor  too  few,  even  when  most 
hurried  and  dealing  with  most  abstract  subjects.  He  has  pre- 
ciseness  of  ideas — preciseness  of  utterance;  and  complete 
mastery  over  his  mind  to  a  degree  as  near  to  perfection  as 
I  can  imagine.  The  wonder  is  -that  such  a  man  would  be 
content  to  be  cooped  up  in  the  little  village  of  Princeton. 

In  another  letter  he  thus  characterizes  Dr.  John  McLean : 
"  He  is  all  benevolence.  He  has  a  soul  large  enough  to  take 
in  the  whole  world ;  although  most  severe  in  his  administra- 
tion of  college  discipline  he  has  not  an  enemy  among  the 
students.  They  all  go  to  him  as  an  adviser  and  friend.  He 
always  gives  them  his  private  reproof  and  warning  before 
he  proceeds  to  more  rigorous  measures.  He  is  a  complete 
exemplification  of  the  Christian,  and  labors  more  assiduously 
and  conscientiously  than  any  other  member  of  the  faculty 
for  the  spiritual  good  of  those  who  are  under  his  instruc- 
tions. As  to  his  success  in  his  professorship  I  cannot  speak 
so  favorably,  I  am  really  afraid  my  knowledge  of  Greek  is 
not  very  much  brightened  by  my  college  course." 

The  industry  of  the  man,  and  the  opportunities  for  educa- 
tion which  he  enjoyed  in  Princeton  at  that  time,  are  well 
illustrated  by  his  enumeration  of  the  studies  he  pursued  in 
and  out  of  college :  his  class-room  work  in  mathematics  in- 
cluded mechanics,  analytical  geometry,  differential  and  in- 
tegral calculus,  and  the  contents  of  Olmsted's  text-book  of 
astronomy;  in  the  classics  he  read  the  Captivi  of  Plautus, 
Juvenal  and  the  GEdipus  Tyrannus ;  and  with  these  he  had 
instruction  in  the  Evidences,  and  in  Locke's  Essay,  together 
with  lectures  on  architecture.  He  had  also  private  lessons 
in  elocution  and  French.  The  spring  holiday  he  spent  in 
Newark,  where  his  mother  was  visiting  with  her  family,  and 
in  September  he  returned  to  New  Albany  to  pass  the  autumn 


xxxii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

holiday  at  home.  His  expenses  for  the  year  were  three 
hundred  and  fifty-three  dollars  and  twelve  cents. 

The  senior  year  was  begun  by  the  purchase  of  a  sylla- 
bus of  Professor  Henry's  lectures,  Brande's  Encyclopedia, 
Hedge's  Logic,  and  Blair's  Rhetoric.  The  holidays  were 
spent  in  New  York  and  Newark  respectively;  he  graduated 
on  July  27th,  1844,  and  returned  home  by  way  of  Niagara. 
His  expenses  for  the  year  were  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
one  dollars  and  fifty-four  cents. 

The  letters  he  wrote  during  this  period  glow  with  a  warm 
affection  for  Princeton,  and  express  a  high  appreciation  of 
the  advantages  he  there  enjoyed.  They  likewise  exhibit  the 
heart-searchings  of  a  generous  mind  and  of  a  manhood  de- 
voted to  duty,  and  scanning  the  future  to  find  its  leadings. 
On  the  subject  of  his  opportunities  in  different  lines  he  wrote 
at  various  times  with  keen  discrimination.  Toward  the 
close  of  the  year  he  declared  :  "  I  can  truly  say  that  no  portion 
of  my  life  has  been  to  me  so  pleasant  as  that  which  I  have 
spent  at  college.  The  friendships  formed  there  are  like  no 
Dthers — they  are  between  equals,  all  have  the  same  object  in 
view,  and  the  same  end  to  strive  after ;  and,  therefore,  they 
are  purer  and  freer  from  those  temptations  which  an  inter- 
course with  the  world  is  likely  to  produce.  In  fact,  I  have 
lever  known  before  what  it  was  to  have  a  real  friend  and  to 
separate  from  him.  I  mean,  of  course,  such  a  companion 
is  similar  tastes  and  a  common  interest  endear  to  us.  I 
lave  really  become  attached  to  Princeton.  As  the  days  of 
ny  sojourn  draw  to  a  close,  and  I  recount  the  pleasant 
riendships  which  I  have  formed,  I  feel  confident  I  shall 
eave  with  regret." 

During  this  year  young  Shields  was  managing  editor  of 
he  Nassau  Literary  Magazine,  and  took  the  Alpha  medal 
or  an  essay  in  connection  with  other  literary  work  in  Whig 
iall.  Chapel  exercises  were  at  five  in  the  morning  during 
ummer,  and  he  allowed  himself  but  six  hours  of  sleep,  such 
vas  his  untiring  zeal  in  the  performance  of  the  many  tasks 
/hich  gave  him  such  a  full  and  fruitful  life.     In  one  of  his 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxxiii 

letters  he  thus  describes  his  room  :  "  Imagine,  then,  after  hav- 
ing deposited  carefully  the  dirt  upon  a  respectable  mat  at  the 
door,  and  having  received  in  response  to  your  knock  a  couple 
of  simultaneous  '  holloas  '  from  within,  you  step  upon  a 
neat  carpeted  floor — please  sit  down — I  must  apologize  for 
the  dilapidated  appearance  of  that  chair — it  lost  its  rockers 
and  one  of  its  arms  one  rainy  morning  in  a  desperate  exi- 
gency of  kindling-wood — be  cautious  how  you  trust  your- 
self in  that  other  one — its  limbs  are  relaxing  with  the  feeble- 
ness of  old  age — however,  there  is  that  other  remaining  one 
which  I  can  recommend  to  you  as  trustworthy.  Having 
given  you  the  necessary  precautions  for  your  safety,  you  may 
now  proceed  in  your  examination  with  nothing  to  molest 
you.  You  see  that  double  cylinder  stove  before  you.  It 
is  a  very  convenient,  economical  affair,  with  its  set  of  damp- 
ers to  regulate  the  temperature,  only  addicted  to  a  curious 
habit  of  letting  the  fire  go  out  once  or  twice  daily.  This 
will  lead  you  readily  to  account  for  that  hill  of  short  wood 
you  see  behind  it.  In  the  southeast  corner  you  observe  a 
collection  of  old  umbrellas,  bandysticks,  old  shoes,  broom, 
etc.,  etc." ;  and  so  he  runs  on  for  a  page  or  two  with  his 
enumeration  of  collected  rubbish. 

There  were  sixty-seven  members  in  the  class,  and  among 
them  were  many  destined  to  be  famous  in  after  life:  James 
C.  Welling,  president  of  Columbian,  now  George  Washing- 
ton, University  in  the  national  capital ;  the  Hon.  H.  S.  Little, 
of  Trenton;  Col.  Edward  A.  Wright,  of  Newark,  N.  J., 
Governor  A.  H.  Colquit,  of  Georgia;  the  Rev.  Noah  H. 
Schenck.of  Brooklyn,  and  in  the  seminary  Bishop  Littlejohn, 
of  Long  Island.  Charles  Godfrey  Leland,  though  in  the  class 
of  1845,  was  his  warm  friend.  From  the  entire  number  of  his 
classmates  about  one-third  were  destined  for  the  Christian 
ministry,  and  it  was  not  extraordinary  that  Shields,  with  his 
pious  zeal  and  profound  religious  nature,  should  have  begun 
to  consider  its  claim  upon  him.  As  early  as  December, 
1844.  he  became  a  regular  attendant  at  the  exercises  of 
trial  preaching  in  the  seminary.     The  faculty  of  Princeton 


xxxiv  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

College  was  composed  of  men  who  were  not  only  great, 
to  mention  only  Henry,  founder  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tute, and  James  Waddell  Alexander,  almost  the  foremost 
Presbyterian  divine  of  his  day,  but  they  were  one  and  all, 
lay  or  clerical,  men  of  devout  minds.  Their  influence  on 
young  Shields  had  been,  as  we  have  noted,  very  profound, 
and  but  a  short  distance  away  in  the  seminary  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church  were  men,  Alexanders  and  Hodges,  spir- 
itually akin  to  the  college  professors  and  equally  fascinating 
by  their  intellectual  attainments.  Shields  expressed  in  his 
letters  many  doubts  as  to  his  spiritual  strength,  earnestly 
entreating  his  mother  to  pray  that  he  might  have  more  holy 
thoughts,  more  heavenward  aspirations.  He  had  many 
fits  of  despondency,  and  wrote  often  of  disappointments, 
of  temptations,  of  his  unfitness  and  unworthiness  for  the 
high  and  sacred  calling  of  the  ministry.  At  last,  however, 
his  decision  was  taken  and  announced.  One  seems  to  read 
between  the  lines  that  Dr.  McLean  influenced  him  in  this, 
unconsciously  to  the  student ;  be  that  as  it  may,  the  earlier 
boyish  judgment  of  the  doctor's  scholarship  was  entirely 
revised,  and,  though  the  appearance  and  manner  of  the 
saintly  man  seemed  unfortunate  to  the  youth,  he  spoke  in  the 
highest  terms  of  his  professor's  learning  in  a  tone  utterly 
different  from  the  first;  and  this  at  the  time  when  his  judg- 
ment was  ripe  and  he  was  in  the  midst  of  choosing  his  pro- 
fession for  life.  His  parents  were  content  that  their  boy 
should  be  a  clergyman,  but  they  were  firm  that  it  must  be  in 
the  church  of  his  birth,  a  Presbyterian  minister;  and  that  he 
should  pursue  his  theological  studies  at  home.  Although 
there  is  evidence  that  Mr.  Shields  already  considered  taking 
orders  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  as  some  of  his 
closest  associates  at  Princeton  actually  did,  yet  on  that  point 
he  did  not  make  a  firm  stand,  so  earnest  were  the  represen- 
tations of  his  mother;  but  his  arguments  for  remaining  in 
Princeton  during  his  theological  training  were  so  eloquent 
and  convincing  that  in  that  respect  his  parents  yielded. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxxv 

VII. 

It  was  at  the  end  of  his  senior  year  that  a  new  college 
calendar,  substantially  the  one  still  in  use,  was  adopted  and 
inaugurated.  Accordingly,  the  holiday,  after  the  momen- 
tous decision  was  taken,  scarcely  afforded  more  than  a 
breathing  space,  and  it  was  with  some  sense  of  exhaustion 
that  the  laborious  student  entered  on  what  proved  to  be  the 
most  important  phase  of  his  education.  His  routine  work 
proved  in  itself  a  very  serious  task,  and  for  a  time  he  was 
much  depressed  over  his  inability  to  take  it  with  the  cheerful 
heart  which  alone  goes  "  all  the  way  "  in  a  responsible  and 
solemn  profession;  in  fact,  his  health  was  actually  jeopard- 
ized and  he  was  compelled  to  seek  recreation  and  recuper- 
ation in  a  visit  to  his  parents  of  some  length,  before  the 
close  of  the  first  year.  He  returned,  however,  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  second  year  in  vigorous  health,  with  his  mind  clear, 
his  faculties  alert,  and  all  doubts  dispelled.  Thereafter 
there  was  no  interruption  in  a  long  course  of  congenial 
study ;  he  pursued  with  ardor,  not  alone  the  regular  course 
of  study,  but  the  avocation  of  philosophical  research  which 
was  destined  to  become  a  life  work. 

Of  the  distinguished  men  who  taught  him  he  formed  the 
highest  opinion ;  as  was  indeed  inevitable  for  one  endowed 
as  he  was  with  a  friendly  and  appreciative  mind.  Dr.  Alex- 
ander's simple  talks,  he  wrote,  talks  in  which  he  utters  great 
truths  with  such  familiarity  and  plainness,  or  Dr.  Hodge 
in  one  of  his  convincing  doctrinal  discourses ;  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  resisting  either.  Dr.  Alexander  is  plain,  simple  and 
precise,  having  just  the  qualities  and  manner  necessary  to 
give  lucid,  common  sense  views  on  vexed  metaphysical 
points,  and  detect  the  folly  of  fine-spun  theories.  Dr.  Hodge 
is  logical  and  comprehensive,  just  what  he  ought  to  be  in  his 
branch,  to  give  rigid  and  correct  interpretations  of  Scripture. 
Professor  Addison  (Alexander)  I  would  not  attempt  to  de- 
scribe; he  completely  stupefies  me  every  time  I  hear  his  talk. 


xxxvi  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

such  a  stream  of  words,  and  so  much  meaning.  He  is  my 
model  of  a  Christian  scholar. 

Upon  one  of  the  manuscripts  of  the  young  theologian  is 
this  remark  by  the  Old  Doctor  (Alexander)  as  he  was  rev- 
erendly  called :  Mr.  Shields  has  a  very  pleasing,  plaintive 
manner  of  speaking.  In  these  days  when  energy  and  force 
seem  to  be  so  much  courted,  it  is  very  pleasing  to  meet  with 
that  more  winning  and  soothing  style. 

In  the  case  of  Dr.  Shields  it  is  true  that  the  child  is  the 
father  of  the  man.  He  had  not  fairly  entered  college  before 
he  began  to  ponder  the  Wie,  Wo,  und  Wann  ?  of  the  German 
poet.  But  for  him  the  oracle  was  not  entirely  dumb ;  though 
he  heard  only  in  part  and  in  whispers,  yet  he  seemed  to  catch 
words  and  thoughts,  alike  of  weight  and  import.  These 
he  carefully  noted  and  pondered ;  almost  from  day  to  day, 
certainly  from  month  to  month.  By  the  time  he  was  in  the 
Seminary  and  had  secured  his  full  measure  of  health  and 
vigor,  the  desire  for  system  took  possession  of  his  very 
soul.  Fortunately,  the  instinct  and  love  for  history  were 
well  developed  in  him;  the  air  of  the  universities  was  then 
heavy  with  what  the  jargon  of  the  hour  styled  German 
"neologism,"  supposed  to  be  lethal  to  all  Christian  faith; 
and  for  many  weak  heads  the  draught  was  too  strong,  so 
strong  that  rationalistic  intoxication  was  a  common  phenom- 
enon. But  Shields,  with  a  little  knot  of  friends,  had  cool 
heads  and  an  abundance  of  hard  common  sense.  They 
thoroughly  knew  much  of  what  men  had  already  thought, 
and  of  how  they  had  behaved  in  consequence.  They  deter- 
mined to  know  more,  and  to  give  all  the  pressing  problems 
a  thorough  investigation  in  the  light  of  human  experience. 
The  group  consisted  of  W.  A.  Lord,  W.  A.  Dod,  A.  N. 
Littlejohn,  J.  C.  Welling,  and  C.  W.  Shields ;  they  were  all 
notable  men,  nearly  every  one  became  distinguished  in  after 
life.  Three  of  these  choice  spirits  the  present  writer  has 
been  privileged  to  know;  their  learning  and  refinement  were 
so  noteworthy  that  they  would  have  been  marked  men  in  any 
land  and  in  any  circle. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxxvii 

In  connection  with  these  men,  therefore,  Shields  began  a 
thorough  and  exhaustive  examination  of  the  philosophies 
both  of  the  past  and  of  their  own  day.  The  philosophic 
synthesis  of  systems  which  he  had  formed  early  in  his  intel- 
lectual life  appears  to  have  served  him  well  as  a  point  of  de- 
parture even  in  his  more  exhaustive  studies.  But  he  pre- 
served from  first  to  last  an  open  mind ;  the  debates  of  the  little 
club  were  continuous  during  the  seminary  course,  each  con- 
tributed his  share,  and  the  conclusions  of  each  were  either 
consciously  or  unconsciously  modified  by  the  results  of  the 
general  discussion.  Two  profound  convictions  remained  in 
Shields's  mind:  the  unity  and  continuity  of  human  thought, 
the  unity  and  continuity  of  the  divine  purpose  as  exhibited 
in  the  historic  church.  These  matters  he  fully  explained  to 
his  mother,  and  between  the  lines  of  his  letters  she  seemed 
to  read  his  leaning  toward  the  Episcopal  Church.  At  all 
events  she  considered  the  probability  so  great  as  to  be,  from 
her  point  of  view,  an  imminent  danger,  and  with  all  her 
weapons,  ecclesiastical  and  personal,  she  combated  the  idea 
in  her  letters.  She  was  so  far  successful  that  her  son  pro- 
posed to  spend  a  year  in  Germany  before  entering  on  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  This  course  was  equally  distasteful 
to  his  good  mother,  who  seems,  from  one  rather  doubtful 
reference,  to  have  dedicated  her  son  to  mission  work  in  the 
West.  In  a  letter  from  one  of  his  friends  mention  is  likewise 
made  of  another  missionary  scheme;  namely,  work  in  the 
foreign  field.  This  probably  has  no  further  significance 
than  that  the  conscientious  young  minister  had  casually,  at 
least,  considered  every  possibility  in  the  dedication  of  his 
life. 

The  result  of  all  these  deliberations  was  the  conviction 
that  he  was  still  too  young  to  enter  on  the  work  of  the  Pres- 
byterian ministry,  and  that  he  could  spend  another  year  at 
Princeton  with  excellent  results,  both  in  ripening  his  mind 
and  in  strengthening  the  foundations  of  his  scholarship.  In 
this  decision  he  had  determined  the  course  of  his  life.  No 
longer  attached  to  the  membership  of  a  class  or  even  of  a 


xxxviii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

group,  his  mind  had  free  course  for  independent  develop- 
ment, and  his  habits  of  omnivorous  reading  were  confirmed, 
were  settled  into  their  groove  without  the  support  of  com- 
radeship. His  own  feeling  throughout  later  life  was  that 
the  quiet,  detached,  reposeful,  intellectual  life  of  this  year 
had  been  fertile  almost  beyond  that  of  any  other.  Before  it 
was  over  he  had  found  his  line ;  and  from  it  he  never  devi- 
ated to  the  very  end.  Determined  on  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  at  least  for  a  time,  many  of  the  sermons  he  pre- 
pared were  of  a  marked  philosophical  cast. 

During  the  holiday  after  leaving  Princeton,  which  he 
spent  at  New  Albany,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Miss 
Charlotte  Elizabeth  Bain,  of  Galway,  New  York.  Later, 
when  he  went  to  spend  some  time  with  an  aunt  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  while  preaching  in  various  pulpits,  the  acquaint- 
ance was  continued  and  ripened  into  love.  On  November 
22nd,  1848,  they  were  married  in  Stamford,  Connecticut, 
by  the  Reverend  John  McElroy.  The  happy  life  together 
began  in  Brooklyn,  where,  with  his  wife  and  her  sister,  he 
established  himself  during  the  time  of  his  probation,  as  a 
supply  in  various  pulpits. 

He  was  an  accomplished  preacher  from  the  first.  Licensed 
as  a  candidate  on  February  2nd,  1847,  he  chose  as  his  text: 
"  And  Enoch  walked  with  God  and  was  not,  for  God  took 
him."  One  of  his  hearers  wrote:  "The  introduction  was 
most  beautiful,  and  the  whole  sermon  was  one  of  exceeding 
excellence,  chaining  the  attention  of  the  audience  through- 
out." The  first  pulpit  which  he  supplied  was  in  Philadel- 
phia. The  proof  of  his  great  power  as  a  preacher  came  in 
the  form  of  three  calls,  almost  simultaneously,  in  1849. 
One  was  from  Salem,  Massachusetts ;  one  from  Hempstead, 
Long  Island,  and  the  third  was  from  the  Pearl  Street  Church 
of  New  York.  He  was  in  much  doubt  as  to  which  of  the 
three  he  should  accept.  After  mature  deliberation,  in  which 
the  question  of  his  wife's  health  had  to  be  carefully  con- 
sidered, he  finally  decided  for  Hempstead.  Referring  jocu- 
larly to  his  decision,  he  had  decided,  he  said,  on  the  old 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xxxix 

negro's  advice :  "  Go  where  there  is  the  most  devil  and  the 
least  pay." 

He  was  ordained  in  November  and  entered  at  once  on 
his  work  at  a  salary  of  five  hundred  dollars  a  year.  His 
task  had  been  made  clear  in  advance.  Writing  on  the  sub- 
ject, he  said:  "  They  wish  a  minister  who  will  give  himself 
up  to  a  great  deal  of  social  visiting.  The  country  portion  of 
the  congregation,  which  forms  the  greater  part,  are  espe- 
cially solicitous  on  this  point.  They  seem  to  feel  that  they 
have  hitherto  been  much  neglected,  and  have  signified  their 
desire  to  the  session  that  it  should  be  stipulated  with  their 
new  pastor  that  he  should  bestow  more  attention  upon  them 
— should  go  out  occasionally  and  spend  the  day,  etc.,  etc. 
They  are  not  a  reading  people,"  he  wrote  in  another  letter; 
"there  are  three  men  here  who  own  fortunes  who  can  scarcely 
write  their  names,  and  there  is  not  one  family  or  person  in 
the  village  (as  far  as  I  have  become  acquainted)  who  is  of 
a  congenial  taste.  I  feel  this  deficiency  very  much,  as  I  am 
afraid  if  I  remain  here  long  I  shall  lapse  into  neglectful 
habits  of  study,  preaching,  and  so  forth."  It  was  apparently 
as  a  matter  of  secular  education  for  his  people  that  early  in 
1850  he  delivered  a  course  of  public  lectures  on  architecture, 
modelled  on  those  of  Professor  Dod,  which  he  had  so  greatly 
admired.  There  is  in  one  of  his  letters  of  the  time  an  inter- 
esting reminiscence  of  older  customs.  The  clergymen  in 
attendance  at  a  funeral  were  provided  with  certain  mourning 
insignia,  among  them  an  ample  scarf  of  linen  to  be  worn 
over  the  shoulder.  Of  these  Mr.  Shields  had  so  many  that 
they  served  as  a  sufficient  provision  for  all  the  shirts  he  could 
wear. 

During  the  summer  of  1850  there  came  a  call  from  the 
Second  Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia.  This  he 
naturally  accepted,  and  in  November  he  was  installed,  the 
charge  being  delivered  by  Dr.  John  McDowell,  and  the  ser- 
mon being  preached  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Boardman.  This  was  a 
very  important  church,  and  the  young  pastor  took  hold  with 
a  will.    During  the  year  ending  October  1st,  1851,  there  were 


xl  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

held  ninety-four  public  services,  at  seventy-three  of  which 
the  pastor  preached.  He  likewise  delivered  thirty-six  lec- 
tures, and  during  the  year  twenty  pews  were  rented.  To 
the  end  of  his  pastorate  his  zeal  never  abated,  and  he  left 
the  active  work  of  preacher  and  pastor  in  the  full  tide  of 
success.  Among  his  leading  men  were  such  influential  citi- 
zens as  Charles  McAllister,  Charles  E.  Morgan,  Judge  Joel 
Jones,  and  Judge  John  K.  Kane.  His  friends  were  men  of 
mark  in  the  community,  such  clergymen  as  George  and 
Walter  Stewart,  Richardson,  Brown,  Van  Rensselaer,  Ches- 
ter, Mann,  Cuyler,  and  Engles,  editor  of  the  "  Presbyterian." 
Two  of  his  intimate  personal  friends  were  the  Hon.  Furman 
Sheppard,  and  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  then  in  the  height  of  his 
renown  as  an  Arctic  explorer.  Over  the  remains  of  the 
latter,  five  years  later,  he  preached  a  funeral  sermon  of 
such  power  as  to  attract  attention  from  the  entire  com- 
munity. 

In  short,  Mr.  Shields  took  his  place  at  once  as  a  great  force 
in  the  city.  This  was  the  more  remarkable  in  view  of  the 
conditions  then  prevailing.  As  Bishop  Henry  C.  Potter  said 
in  his  memorial  address,  delivered  after  the  death  of  his 
friend :  "  I  was  a  boy  in  Philadelphia  at  that  time,  and  I 
can  remember  how  swift  we  of  different  communions  were 
to  fasten  upon  one  another's  failings,  and  how  little  love  was 
lost — or  found — between  us!  What  was  most  prized  then 
was  a  master  of  polemics — there  is  little  doubt  that  the 
orthodox  believer,  when  he  looked  at  his  heterodox  neigh- 
bor, complacently  thanked  God  that  he  was  not  as  other  men 
were !  Does  anybody  wonder  that  the  sensitive  and  devout 
scholar  turned  from  the  ministry,  in  which  it  was  often  de- 
manded that  the  preacher  should  meet  such  expectations  or 
be  lectured  by  his  deacons — turned,  I  say,  from  such  a  con- 
ception of  the  office  of  the  pulpit  to  the  professor's  chair?  " 
For  fifteen  years  the- -pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian 
Church  was  a  faithful  servant  of  his  people  and  of  his  com- 
munity, warning,  admonishing,  edifying,  and  cheering  all 
who  sought  his  kindly  offices. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xli 

The  life  of  these  years  was  stimulating  in  all  directions. 
He  found  time  to  indulge  himself  in  extensive  reading,  and 
occasionally  to  write  verses  of  a  fugitive  sort,  which  relieved 
his  own  emotional  nature  and  gave  great  pleasure  to  many 
discriminating  readers.  But  the  serious  side  of  his  private 
study  was  dedicated  throughout  the  entire  period  to  a 
continued  and  careful  consideration  of  the  great  problems 
which  had  absorbed  him  in  earlier  years.  As  early  as  1855 
he  published  a  thoughtful  article  on  "  Presbyterian  Polity," 
and  a  volume  entitled  "  A  Book  of  Remembrance."  The 
latter  is  a  beautiful  allegory  of  the  inner  life;  it  had  a  wide 
circulation  through  the  Presbyterian  publication  board,  and 
ran  through  several  editions.  So  important  were  his  con- 
tributions to  philosophy  and  theology  that  in  i860  he  de- 
livered the  annual  address  at  the  Princeton  Commencement 
and  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  In  an  ad- 
dress delivered  long  afterward,  at  the  centennial  celebration 
of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  he  said  that  he  re- 
membered Philadelphia  as  a  city  in  which  his  early  labors 
found  generous  appreciation,  to  which  he  became  attached 
by  the  strongest  ties  of  his  life,  and  which  he  had  ever  re- 
membered, as  the  exiled  Greek  remembered  his  ditlcis  Argos, 
the  sweet  home  of  art  and  letters  and  refinement. 

This  sentiment  was  doubtless  awakened  as  much  by  recol- 
lections of  his  private  as  of  his  public  life  in  that  city. 
During  the  early  years  he  had  lived  through  the  heats  of 
summer  in  the  suburb  of  Torresdale.  There,  on  August 
9th,  1853,  his  wife  died,  leaving  him  a  widower  with  three 
children  still  in  infancy.  For  eight  years  he  devoted  himself 
to  nourishing  and  cherishing  them  with  double  affection  and 
devotion.  During  the  summer  of  1856  he  was  in  Newport, 
Rhode  Island,  filling  the  pulpit  of  the  Congregational  church, 
of  which  the  well-known  Dr.  Thayer  was  pastor.  He  re- 
membered all  the  simplicity  of  Newport  living  as  he  then 
saw  it ;  no  cottage  life,  no  Ocean  Drive,  no  Bellevue  Avenue ; 
just  the  old  town,  three  large  hotels,  and  many  boarding 
houses.     The  morning  hours  were  spent  in  the  quiet  of  the 


xlii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

modest  residence,  dinner  was  at  three,  and  the  gayety  was 
a  drive  after  that  to  Fort  Adams,  or  to  the  "  Beaches,"  and 
then  to  the  "  Glen  "  for  tea.  There  he  first  met  Miss  Eliz- 
abeth Kane,  of  Philadelphia,  who  was  visiting  her  cousin, 
General  John  van  Rensselaer.  Their  acquaintance  was  des- 
tined in  time  to  become  a  romance,  and  it  was  to  this  meet- 
ing that  he  always  attributed  his  enduring  affection  for 
Newport.  He  did  not  return  until  1877,  but  the  place  had 
still,  even  heightened  charms  for  him ;  and  it  was  in  the  study 
of  a  house  he  built  for  himself,  on  a  site  overlooking  Ochre 
Point,  that  he  wrote  many  chapters  of  his  Philosophia 
Ultima. 

This  friendship  led  also  to  the  forming  of  many  inti- 
macies in  Philadelphia.  These  are  worth  enumerating 
because  they  greatly  influenced  the  later  life  of  Dr.  Shields, 
affording  him  the  pleasure  and  stimulus  of  social  and  intel- 
lectual companionship,  which  everywhere  made  him  one  of 
the  initiated.  Fernrock,  the  country  seat  of  Judge  Kane, 
was  the  centre  of  a  group,  many  members  of  which  were 
destined  to  eminence  in  later  years.  Among  them  were 
Miss  Lilly  Macalister,  who,  as  Mrs.  Lawton,  held  a  unique 
position  in  Washington  society  from  the  days  of  Buchanan 
to  the  second  administration  of  Cleveland ;  there  were  the 
daughters  of  Fanny  Kemble,  Sarah  and  Fanny  Butler,  the 
former  married  to  the  late  Owen  J.  Wistar,  and  the  latter  to 
the  Hon.  James  Lee,  now  Dean  of  Hereford,  England; 
there  was  Miss  Charlotte  Wood,  wife  of  the  late  Vicar  of 
Wakefield,  the  Reverend  Edward  Bell;  there  were  also 
Thomas  Hicks,  and  three  medical  students,  J.  Da  Costa, 
S.  Weir  Mitchell,  and  John  K.  Kane,  a  son  of  the  house;  of 
:ourse,  too,  there  was  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane,  of  the  Navy, 
who  returned  thither  to  recuperate  from  his  voyages  in  the 
Arctic.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the  attractions  of  such  con- 
genial friends  to  a  hard-working  pastor,  glad  to  seek  relief 
for  a  season  from  the  cares  of  a  large  city  church. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xliii 

vm. 

In  1S61  Dr.  Shields  published  a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Phi- 
losophia  Ultima."  It  contained  a  digest  of  his  philosophical 
studies  up  to  that  date.  It  was  an  essay,  partly  historical, 
partly  critical,  claiming  that  eventually  there  would  issue 
from  a  complete  system  of  knowledge,  which  reason  and 
revelation  are  combining  to  produce,  a  final  philosophy;  in 
other  words,  that  sooner  or  later  there  would  be  a  conclusive 
harmony  of  science  and  religion.  This  paper  was  almost  a 
defiance  of  the  orthodox  thought  of  America  as  it  then  was, 
for  it  had  no  apologetic  motive  whatever,  though  it  claimed 
that  the  relation  of  apologetics  to  philosophy  demanded  the 
most  careful  study  from  the  philosophical  point  of  view.  In 
the  view  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  it  was  erroneous  to 
make  philosophy  the  arbiter  between  science  and  religion; 
to  emphasize  the  opposition  of  science  and  religion  was  un- 
duly to  enlarge  the  area  of  apologetics,  to  introduce  an  un- 
philosophic  element  into  philosophy,  which  at  most  is  but  the 
handmaid  of  theology.  The  essence  of  Dr.  Shields's  posi- 
tion was  that  between  true  religion  and  true  science  there 
could  be  no  conflict,  but  that  between  the  "  crude,  unproved 
hypotheses  put  forth  in  the  name  of  science,  and  the  human, 
fallible  dogmas  claiming  to  express  the  Bible  "  there  was 
already  joined  a  bitter  conflict,  and  that  it  was  a  proper  task 
of  philosophy  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  claims  of  both,  but 
to  purge  the  evidence  and  establish  the  facts  beneath  the 
claims.  On  the  one  hand,  the  importance  and  value  of 
certain  so-called  scientific  hypotheses,  on  the  other,  the 
importance  and  value  of  certain  so-called  religious  dogmas ; 
from  a  determination  of  these  would  finally  issue  a  harmony 
of  secular  and  religious  thought.  Such  was  the  revo- 
lutionary position  of  the  manifesto.  Of  set  purpose  the 
proud  title  was  a  challenge. 


xliv  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 


IX. 


In  order  to  gain  a  hearing  the  challenger  must  enter  the 
lists ;  these  were  already  marked  and  enclosed  for  the  appel- 
lant, partly  in  the  existing  conditions  of  thought,  partly  in 
the  position  which  Dr.  Shields  had  established  in  the  Phila- 
delphia community,  and  especially  in  the  esteem  which  he 
enjoyed  at  Princeton.  His  claim  to  a  professor's  chair  was 
manifest.  Accordingly  the  idea  engaged  the  attention  of 
many  influential  people,  and  the  agitation  took  form  almost 
immediately.  In  due  time  it  became  evident  that  his  chair 
must  be  in  philosophy,  as  far  removed  from  the  field  of 
Christian  apologetics  as  was  necessary  to  secure  and  keep  a 
clear  perspective.  The  ideal  situation  was  manifestly  in 
Princeton  College,  as  his  alma  mater  was  then  popularly 
styled.  When  the  Presbyterian  Church  located  its  chief  and 
oldest  seminary  at  the  doors  of  Princeton  College,  it  did  so 
with  the  clear  intention  that  the  interaction  between  the  two 
institutions  should  redound  to  the  advantage  of  both.  Their 
relations  have  ever  been  close  and  harmonious;  yet  their 
chairs  have  been  held  by  men  of  the  most  divergent  views, 
and  their  policies  are  for  the  most  part  avowedly  distinct. 
It  would  be  no  breach  in  custom  for  a  graduate  of  both  to 
maintain  in  the  undenominational  college  what  the  Calvin- 
istic  theology  of  the  seminary  might  not  admit,  the  more  so 
as  Dr.  Shields  was  a  convinced  and  consistent  Calvinist  him- 
self. By  1865  the  matter  was  arranged,  and  in  that  year 
he  was  made  professor  of  the  harmony  of  science  and 
revealed  religion.  This  was  the  first  chair  of  the  kind  to  be 
established  in  any  American  college.  Princeton  contributed 
from  its  meagre  funds  six  hundred  dollars,  the  rest  of  the 
salary  was  provided  by  subscriptions  of  friends  to  the  project 
most  of  whom  were  in  Philadelphia:  later,  when  the  pro- 
fessor inherited  a  modest  fortune,  these  sums  were  all  scru- 
pulously repaid. 

On  August  25th,  1861,  Dr.  Shields  had  taken  to  wife  his 
dear  friend  Miss  Elizabeth  Kane,  whom  he  had  so  long  ad- 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xlv 

mired  and  who  had  been  the  inspiration  for  much  of  his  best 
work.    They  lived  on  Rittenhouse  Square,  and  what  with  the 
duties  of  a  growing  family,  increased  by  social  activities 
incident  to  a  new  sphere,  life  was  so  full  and  exacting  as  to 
make  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  the  pursuit  of  philo- 
sophical studies.     The  endless  cares  of  the  pastor  weighed 
heavily  upon  him,  feeling  as  he  did  that  his  period  of  min- 
isterial work  had  been  faithfully  absolved.      It  was  with 
delight  that  he  hailed  his  Princeton  call,  and  the  vista  which 
it  opened  of  congenial  work  and  study.     The  last  years  of 
his  Philadelphia  pastorate  were,  however,  not  so  far  absorbed 
by  public  duties  but  that  he  found  time  to  publish  a  Presby- 
terian prayer-book,  thus  inaugurating  in  the  church  of  his 
birth  the  liturgical  movement  which  has  reached  the  stage 
set  forth  by  the  action  of  the  General  Assembly  in  1904, 
approving  the  report  of  their  committee  on  the  order  of  com- 
mon worship.     Dr.  Shields's  book  contains  a  historical  state- 
ment of  the  work  of  the  Savoy  Conference,  in  which  the 
language  of  the  English  prayer-book  was  modified  to  satisfy 
the  scruples  of  Presbyterians  with  a  view  to  the  unity  of  an 
Anglican  Catholic  church.     The  body  of  the  book  contains 
all  existing  historical  material  for  such  a  manual.     While 
the  volume  has  never  attracted  general  attention,  yet  sev- 
eral editions  have  been  sold,  and  it  has  been  a  constant  re- 
minder of  the  possibility  in  the  contemporary  age  of  what 
was  contemplated  at  the  outset  of  modern  history.    Further, 
the  introduction  gave  evidence  of  thoroughness  in  historical 
research,  and  displays  a  mastery  of  material  in  style  and 
form   which  did  not  pass  unnoticed  by  historians.     He  was 
later  to  be  honored  with  the  burden  of  historical  teaching; 
which  he  did  not  seek  and  which  was  far  from  being  con- 
genial to  his  tastes. 

Dr.  Shields  established  himself  with  his  family  in  a  com- 
fortable and  conveniently  situated  cottage,  where  he  dis- 
pensed a  generous  hospitality,  spiritual,  intellectual,  and 
material,  for  many  years.  For  some  time  his  income  was 
small ;  but,  such  as  it  was,  the  gracious  presence  of  his  wife 


xlvi  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

and  his  own  genial  personality  made  his  hearthstone  a  centre 
of  influence  from  the  beginning.  There  radiated  from  it  a 
spirit  of  refinement  and  culture  which  made  it  a  power 
among  his  colleagues  and  his  students.  The  first  period  of 
his  Princeton  life  was  one,  however,  of  some  disappointment 
and  much  sorrow.  As  his  family  grew  in  numbers  and  in 
age,  the  demands  upon  his  slender  resources  increased 
steadily.  Much  of  his  work  was  that  for  which  he  was  pre- 
pared: the  writing  and  delivery  of  lectures,  the  chapel 
preaching,  and  the  general  routine  of  the  professor's  life, 
but  there  was  alarming  and  fatal  sickness  in  his  family,  and 
increased  expense  had  to  be  met  by  exertions  which  though 
remunerative  did  not  advance  the  cause  to  which  he  had 
devoted  himself.  As  the  crown  of  sorrow,  Mrs.  Shields 
died  in  1869.  Again  he  found  himself  in  widowed  solitude, 
charged  with  all  the  care  which  little  children  demand  from 
both  their  parents. 

Always  sensitive  and  retiring,  it  now  seemed  as  if  he 
must  remain  a  sad  and  discouraged  recluse.  For  a  little 
time  it  was  such  a  life  that  he  led.  But  the  well-spring  of 
a  higher  life  was  copious  and  strong  within  him  ;  as  in  many 
similar  instances  his  mind  and  his  books  provided  balm  for 
his  wounded  spirit  and  in  renewed  study  he  found  a  measure 
of  consolation.  At  last  he  felt  the  impulse  to  original  com- 
position, and  in  the  summer  of  1870,  working  day  after  day, 
far  into  the  night,  he  began  to  set  down  the  ideas  he  hoped 
to  embody  in  his  first  book.  Among  the  younger  men  who 
had  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  some  intimacy  with  Dr.  Shields 
was  one  who  was  destined  to  reach  great  distinction  as  a 
biblical  scholar  and  who  is  now  (1905)  a  professor  in  the 
University  of  Leipsic,  Caspar  Rene  Gregory.  After  months 
of  solitary  labor,  his  older  friend  called  the  young  scholar 
to  his  service ;  their  intimacy  grew  apace  and  after  the- 
autumn  of  the  year  they  were  much  together  in  the  evenings, 
frequently,  too,  in  the  afternoons ;  and  sometimes  in  the 
mornings  as  well.  At  last  Dr.  Gregory  came  to  pass  long 
periods  of  time,  weeks  together,  under  his  friend's  roof. 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  jdvii 

I  lis  account  of  the  author's  labors  and  methods  gives  a  clear 
insight  into  the  genesis  of  the  volumes,  as  they  grew  on 
Dr.  Shields's  hands. 

With  reference  to  his  sources,  says  Dr.  Gregory,  I  was  for 
some  time  librarian  of  the  Seminary  Library,  and  1  used 
to  search  out  all  kinds  of  things  at  first  hand  for  him.  An 
old  copy  of  Petrus  Lombardus,  the  Master  of  Sentences, 
sticks  in  my  memory ;  and  philosophers  of  all  kinds,  and 
scientific  men  in  general.  So  far  as  I  can  remember,  the 
longest  hunt  I  had,  referred  to  Galileo ;  and  I  scarcely  ven- 
ture now  to  say  what  the  last  point  was,  save  that  the  aim 
was  to  get  authentic  testimony  about  his  trial ;  testimony 
that  was  not  in  books.  It  is  quite  possible  that  some  note 
of  mine  about  it  is  still  among  Dr.  Shields's  papers.  I  went 
to  a  then  very  old  and  very  world-forsaken,  I  think  French, 
monastery  in  Baltimore;  it  seems  to  me  that  the  priest  or 
the  monk  whom  I  there  saw  was  very  suspicious,  and  that  I 
got  nothing  out  of  him.  I  was  more  successful  at  Phila- 
delphia, at  the  Bishop's  house  near  the  Cathedral.  There  I 
met  a  priest  who,  I  think,  had  been  the  Secretary  of  the 
Bishop  at  the  Vatican  Council ;  his  name  escapes  me  at  this 
moment;  I  think  of  Hauptmann,  Hausmann,  or  Hoffman, 
but  the  chances  are  that  it  was  something  very  different;  he 
is  probably,  if  still  living,  a  dignitary  of  the  Church,  for  he 
was  learned,  facile,  and  in  favor.  He  at  once  entered  into 
the  spirit  of  the  thing  and,  after  we  had  rummaged  around 
for  a  while,  he  said  that  he  thought  he  had  seen  an  account 
of  the  trial  or  some  quotations  from  proceedings  at  the  trial 
in,  I  think,  an  Italian  Review.  This  he  found,  and  a  foot- 
note gave  just  what  we  were  looking  for.  Dr.  Shields  was 
greatly  pleased  when  I  got  back  to  Princeton  with  the  notes. 
That  is  enough  about  the  sources.  Dr.  Shields,  I  always 
found  willing  and  desirous  to  get  back  to  and  down  to  the 
original  sources. 

Taking  then  the  accessible  sources,  often,  of  course,  a 
volume  or  two  of  the  given  author,  Dr.  Shields  wrote  with 
the  greatest  care  an  abstract  of  the  opinions  of  the  author, 


xlviii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

often  several  pages  long.  Such  longer  summaries  he  then 
again  reduced  to  shorter  ones,  tearing  the  old  ones  up. 
Finally,  I  objected  to  his  destruction  of  the  preliminary  work 
and  he  laid  these  papers  away;  whether  they  still  exist  or 
not  I  do  not  know.  From  these  abstracts  he  proceeded  to 
the  writing  of  the  given  chapter  in  his  book.  How  long  he 
wrote  and  rewrote  and  tore  up  I  cannot  tell.  I  kept  remon- 
strating with  him  and  insisting  upon  it  that  he  must  begin 
to  settle  the  manuscript  for  the  press.  I  should  say  that  I 
read  everything  as  he  wrote  it,  or  he  read  it  to  me.  I 
worked  at  my  own  work,  then  largely  philosophy  and  his- 
tory, at  the  window  side  of  his  table,  a  large  table,  doubt- 
less still  at  Morven  or  Newport,  while  he  worked  at  the 
room-side  of  the  table,  so  that  we  were  hours  together  there. 
And  then  we  would  go  to  chairs  at  each  side  of  the  little 
wood  fire,  where  he  would  read  Tennyson  or  Matthew 
Arnold,  or  something  else  nice,  to  me,  or  we  discussed 
heaven  and  earth,  and  the  rest  of  creation  or  non-creation. 
To  go  on :  at  last  I  said,  "  This  must  stop.  You  must 
give  me  the  beginning  of  Volume  I,  and  I  shall  copy  it  off 
and  lay  it  away,  and  that  will  be  as  if  it  were  printed,  and 
you  must  let  it  alone  and  go  on  with  the  rest.  And  so  for  II, 
and  III."  And  we  did  that.  How  far  the  process  actually 
went  on  before  I  left  for  Leipsic,  on  May  9  (sailing  May 
10),  1873,  I  cannot  now  remember.  I  take  it  for  granted 
that  the  most  of  I,  much  of  II,  and  a  little  of  III  (do  not  ask 
me  how  far  I,  II,  III  reach)  was  done,  and  of  course  he  was 
working  away  on  the  piles  of  abstracts  for  the  rest  of  it.  I 
put  the  copied-off,  quasi-printed,  parts  into  one  of  the 
drawers  on  my  side  of  the  table. 

As  to  persons,  it  should  be  mentioned  that  Dr.  Welling, 
when  he  first  came  to  Princeton,  lived  at  Dr.  Shields's  and 
was  thus  for  some  time  closely  with  him,  talking  over  and, 
I  think,  hearing  everything,  although  I  cannot  now  say  just 
how  much  he  read  or  heard  of  the  book.  Dr.  Shields  did 
not  have  much  to  do  with  people  in  general,  although  he  was, 
of  course,  ever  friendly  to  all.    Once  or  twice  we  called  on 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  xlix 

John  Miller,  after  he  came  back  to  Princeton,  for  he  amused 
and  interested  us.  He  was  full  of  thought,  and  totally  reck- 
less in  what  he  said.  Once  he  appalled  us  by  saying,  I  think 
in  the  presence  of  his  lovely  wife,  in  the  midst  of  a  theolog- 
ical argument:  "Now,  if  I  should  murder  my  wife " 

We  knew  there  was  no  danger  of  it,  but  it  was  an  uncanny 
way  of  pointing  a  position. 

These  pleasant  memories  of  Professor  Gregory  suggest 
the  character  of  his  friend,  as  it  was  then  formed  and  as 
it  remained  substantially  to  the  last.  His  scholarship  was 
marked  by  three  qualities;  it  was  based  on  the  rock  of 
original  research,  it  was  special  within  limits  carefully  re- 
lated to  the  whole  field,  it  had  the  clearness  which  Descartes 
says  is  the  test  of  truth.  In  his  friendships  he  was  careful 
to  select  those  of  the  strongest  individuality,  so  that  the 
interchange  of  relations  might  increase  the  vital  forces  of 
all  concerned.  Then,  as  now,  Princeton  abounded  in  men 
of  strong  purpose  and  of  fearless  personality,  utterly  indif- 
ferent to  the  levelling  forces  so  active  in  the  outer  world. 
The  intercourse  of  such  persons  with  each  other  results  in 
the  sharpening  of  minds  and  wits,  in  the  challenge  and  re- 
tort, the  feint  and  guard,  which  are  conducive  to  chivalric 
liberty,  reciprocity  of  sympathy,  and  vigorous  execution  of 
tasks.  Busy  scholars  guard  their  privacy  as  a  sacred  thing, 
and  carefully  maintain  the  conventions  of  life;  the  hours  of 
leisure  are  correspondingly  free  and  joyous.  The  atmos- 
phere thus  created  was  a  congenial  one  for  the  training  of 
Dr.  Shields's  natural  powers,  and  he  throve  in  it  despite  his 
sorrows  and  his  cares. 

Moreover,  he  was  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  policy  of 
the  university  to  which  he  belonged,  a  policy  based  on  tra- 
dition and  on  the  conditions  of  its  means  and  geographical 
site.  Established  in  protest  against  ultra  conservatism,  it 
was  committed  to  hearing  the  other  side  on  all  disputed 
questions ;  its  constitution  was  founded  in  the  liberal  arts  and 
sciences,  and  to  the  cultivation  of  these  it  was  irrevocably 
committed.     Whatever  the  future  had  in  store,  the  present 


1  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

path  was  clearly  defined ;  in  the  words  of  a  famous  son  of 
Princeton,  her  scholars  were  not  to  be  citizens  of  some  petty 
principality,  but  freemen  in  the  commonwealth  of  knowl- 
edge. The  place  itself  has  been,  from  the  first,  a  haunt  for 
men  of  all  sections  in  our  federal  union ;  it  bred  the  rebels 
of  1776  under  Witherspoon,  it  saw  Washington's  greatest 
strategic  achievement,  it  saw  the  recognition  of  American 
independence,  its  vane  pointed  first  South  and  then  North  in 
the  Civil  War,  it  had  first  introduced  science  into  the  cur- 
riculum of  American  colleges,  in  short,  both  theoretically  and 
historically  it  stood  for  liberty  without  license. 

With  such  aspirations  and  such  a  past,  the  task  of  develop- 
ment along  its  chosen  course  would  have  been  easy  for  the 
college,  had  its  resources  been  adequate  to  its  aspirations ;  but 
unfortunately  such  was  not  the  case,  and  no  member  of  her 
faculty  could  escape  the  performance  of  work  for  which  he 
was  known  to  be  capable.  The  most  conspicuous  gap  in  her 
course  of  study  was  the  absence  of  all  instruction  in  secular 
history,  except  as  it  was  given  incidentally  to  the  instruction 
in  other  departments.  Dr.  McCosh  succeeded  to  the  Pres- 
ident's chair  at  the  opening  of  the  college  year  in  1868.  He 
at  once  inspired  all  the  friends  of  the  university  with  confi- 
dence in  his  guidance,  and  delighted  them  with  his  shrewd 
insight  into  the  character  of  his  task.  Enthusiasm  increased 
as  his  projects  were  realized  one  after  another,  and  his  col- 
leagues were  ready  for  almost  any  sacrifice.  In  1870,  there- 
fore, Dr.  Shields  assumed  the  work  of  teaching  modern 
history,  the  college  assuming  the  whole  of  his  salary.  For 
thirteen  years  he  lectured  on  European  and  American  civili- 
zation, on  English  constitutional  law,  on  philosophical  his- 
tory, and  on  social  science.  So  brilliant  and  thorough  was 
his  work,  in  spite  of  the  energy  which  it  took  from  his 
chosen  field  of  labor,  that  the  compulsion  to  continue  for  so 
long  was  really  of  his  own  making.  He  obtained  relief  at 
the  last  only  by  sheer  will-power,  in  the  determination  to 
sacrifice  a  portion  of  his  salary  that  he  might  devote  himself 
solely  to  his  specialty.     For  no  part  of  his  activities  is  he 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  li 

held  in  more  grateful  remembrance  by  his  pupils  than  for 
the  inspiration  they  received  from  his  large  and  forcible 
views  of  history,  and  for  the  enduring  impulse  he  gave  to  the 
development  of  historical  studies  in  Princeton  University. 

His  intellectual  discouragements,  therefore,  were  in  the 
main  due  to  his  own  qualities  and  abilities.  He  neverthe- 
less felt  them  keenly,  and  was  often  impatient  as  time  flew  by 
and  the  field  he  had  surveyed  remained  untilled.  A  born 
and  tearless  pioneer,  it  seemed  hard  that  he  should  not  enter 
on  the  task  of  occupying  and  improving  his  preemptions. 
What  was  more,  he  was  for  long  an  academic  preacher, 
second  to  none  in  eloquence  and  edification.  He  held  his 
student  audiences  spellbound  in  the  college  chapel,  and  visit- 
ing strangers  thronged  to  hear  him.  A  number  of  his  most 
famous  and  best  remembered  sermons  were  printed  by  re- 
quest. They  remind  one  of  the  "  Old  Doctor's  "  criticism, 
when  the  professor  was  yet  a  student.  Their  tone  is  dis- 
tinctively that  of  the  plaintive  scholar,  who  has  noted  the 
conditions  into  which  he  was  born,  and  holds  himself  respon- 
sible for  those  in  which  he  lives.  They  abound  in  felicitous 
phrase,  in  happy  illustrations,  and  in  philosophic  insight. 
They  console  while  they  instruct,  they  encourage  while  they 
warn,  they  combine  the  fire  of  conviction  with  the  charm  of 
melancholy.  To  the  preparations  of  these  sermons  their 
author  gave  lavishly  of  his  time  and  his  force,  so  much,  in- 
deed, that  in  them  he  cultivated  his  literary  gifts  to  a  higher 
perfection  than  in  either  his  lectures  or  his  books.  It  was  his 
sufficient  reward  that  his  hearers  were  appreciative  and 
grateful.  When,  after  many  years  of  such  service,  he  felt 
compelled  to  devote  his  life  to  what  he  regarded  as  higher 
duty,  it  was  not  without  regret  that  he  relinquished  the 
stimulating  pleasure  of  regular  ministerial  service. 

Considering  the  natural  sensitiveness  of  Dr.  Shields,  and 
the  circumstances  under  which  he  had  entered  upon  his  duties 
in  Princeton,  it  was  not  strange  that  he  desired  to  know  hi  >w 
he  stood  in  the  opinion  of  his  public.  On  this  point  he  con- 
sulted one  of  his  intimate  friends,  William  Baker,  the  well- 


lii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

known  author  of  several  striking  books,  among  them  the 
novel  which  not  long  since  absorbed  a  host  of  critical  readers, 
"  His  Majesty  Myself."  In  a  letter  dated  November  nth, 
1866,  Mr.  Baker  wrote:  "  I  have  only  two  small  statements 
to  make.  Whether  or  not  you  will  think  them  worth  the 
paper  and  the  time  spent  in  reading  this,  you  must  decide. 
Imprimis,  Dr.  Duffield  accompanied  me  to  this  city.  In  an 
incidental  way  he  told  me  that  you  gave  the  utmost  satis- 
faction in  your  chair  to  all.  He  was  even  enthusiastic  about 
your  present  and  future  in  Princeton.  Since  coming  here  I 
have  heard  that  Dr.  Hodge,  of  Princeton,  has  been  speaking 
of  your  course  in  a  manner  most  nattering  to  yourself.  This 
I  have  direct.  Moral :  Do  not  be  so  sensitive.  You  are  too 
self-conscious,  too  introspective.  Forget  your  own  existence. 
Be  so  absorbed  in,  say,  the  culture  of — even  turnips,  if  noth- 
ing else — the  youth  about  you,  as  to  have  only  a  traditional 
memory  of  yourself.  I  believe  if  one  could  know  and  care  as 
little  for  one's  self  as  a  tulip  does,  or  a  nightingale,  one  would 
be  that  much  the  more  fragrant  and  melodious  for  it.  What 
a  sage  I  am,  am  I  not?  "  The  recipient  of  this  letter  profited 
much  from  it ;  for  it  looks  at  present  as  if  he  might  have 
kept  it  by  him  for  a  time.  At  all  events,  he  eventually 
acquired,  as  was  just,  the  well  earned  self-confidence  without 
which  men  are  after  all  broken  reeds. 

The  high  esteem  and  affection  which  was  expressed  to  Mr. 
Baker  by  Dr.  Duffield,  of  the  college,  and  Dr.  Hodge,  of 
the  seminary,  in  their  utterances  of  consideration  for  Dr. 
Shields  were  universal  with  all  his  colleagues  in  both  insti- 
tutions. He  easily  attained  to  respect  and  popularity,  and 
his  eminence  was  never  disputed.  Possibly  the  degree  of 
confidence  which  his  associates  placed  in  him  was  most 
clearly  expressed  in  the  fact  that  throughout  his  long  connec- 
tion with  Princeton,  they  regarded  him  as  the  one  man  best 
fitted  for  the  most  difficult  of  tasks,  the  preparation  of  the 
record  to  be  spread  on  their  minutes  concerning  the  char- 
acter and  services  of  those  who  by  death  or  resignation  were 
taken  from  the  service  of  the  college.     In  him  they  recog- 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  liii 

nized  the  typical  Princetonian,  steeped  in  the  college  history 
and  feeling,  endowed  with  a  splendid  gift  of  expression  and 
able  to  gauge  the  proportionate  value  of  services  rendered, 
as  no  other  could.  Besides,  his  human  sympathy,  tempered 
by  disciplined  emotions,  would,  as  it  did,  surely  result  in  a 
fine  literary  cast  to  such  a  record.  The  many  such  estimates 
from  his  pen  are  alike  adequate  and  beautiful.  Were  the 
old  fashion  of  elaborate  epitaphs  still  in  vogue,  these  polished 
and  terse  characterizations  would  well  commemorate  virtue 
and  gladden  the  hearts  of  posterity.  It  is  a  misfortune  that 
they  must  ever  remain  inaccessible  to  all  but  the  antiquary. 


With  the  revolving  years  the  home  of  Dr.  Shields  became 
a  centre  of  social  importance,  which  afforded  the  highest  and 
purest  pleasure  to  his  neighbors  and  to  strangers  alike.  In 
his  oldest  daughter,  as  she  grew  to  woman's  estate,  he  had  a 
helper  and  companion  abundantly  fit  to  preside  at  his  hos- 
pitable table  and  welcome  his  guests  to  a  well-ordered  house. 
The  students  and  other  young  visitors  made  life  cheerful  and 
gay.  Into  their  amusements  the  head  of  the  family  threw 
himself  with  zest ;  for  one  of  their  most  important  enterprises 
he  made  a  dramatic  version  of  Tennyson's  "  Princess,"  care- 
fully studied  with  reference  to  the  exigencies  of  the  ama- 
teur stage.  It  was  duly  acted  by  his  children  and  their 
friends  under  his  careful  management,  and  with  such  suc- 
cess that  he  was  persuaded  to  publish  it  in  a  little  volume 
which  has  been  of  use  to  many  similar  companies  of  young 
folk.  These,  and  like  recreations  of  an  elevating  character, 
gave  a  distinguished  quality  to  the  household.  Miss  Shields 
deserves  more  than  a  passing  mention.  She  was  her  father's 
support,  and  a  mother  to  his  children ;  a  woman  of  most  un- 
common parts,  of  brilliant  attainments  and  trenchant  wit ; 
her  company  was  eagerly  sought  by  her  equals  in  age  and  by 
her  elders;  children  were  her  adoring  friends.  After  her 
marriage  she  presided  over  her  husband's  home  as  she  had 


liv  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

over  that  of  her  father,  and  "  Springdale  "  was  a  centre  of 
influence  quite  as  important  as  her  father's  house;  after  her 
grandfather's  death,  Dr.  Shields  came  into  his  comfortable 
inheritance,  and  made  his  home  with  her  until  her  untimely 
death.  Her  memory  is  still  green  with  those  who  were 
young  in  Princeton  during  her  mature  life;  and  men  now 
verging  over  the  term  of  middle  life  pay  hearty  tribute  to 
the  power  for  good  which  she  exercised  over  those  who  were 
favored  with  her  friendship. 

When  her  younger  sister  became  Mrs.  Stockton,  it  was 
possible  for  Dr.  Shields  to  purchase  "  Morven,"  the  ancient 
seat  of  her  husband's  family,  and  there  in  the  companionship 
of  his  children  and  grandchildren,  he  spent  the  remaining 
years  of  his  life.  In  this  acquisition  Dr.  Shields  took  the 
most  intense  delight.  He  wrote  of  it  that  it  had  been  the 
joy  of  Richard  Stockton,  scholar  and  statesman,  who  had 
been  a  student  at  Elizabeth,  where  he  met  Annis  Boudinot, 
daughter  of  Elias,  president  of  the  first  congress.  As  Mrs. 
Stockton  she  came  to  the  ancestral  home  in  Princeton,  and 
fixed  upon  it  the  poetic  name  of  "  Morven,"  taken  from  the 
scene  of  Ossian's  poems.  As  a  manorial  estate  it  originated 
in  a  grant  from  William  Penn  to  an  earlier  Richard  Stock- 
ton, in  1701,  of  a  tract  of  five  thousand  five  hundred  acres, 
embracing  the  present  grounds  of  the  university  and  the  vil- 
lage of  Princeton.  Nor  was  it  a  matter  of  little  interest  to 
him  and  to  many  others,  that  by  a  coincidence,  after  a  lapse 
of  a  hundred  and  thirty  years,  branches  of  the  Stockton  and 
Woodruff  families,  so  closely  associated  in  colonial  times, 
should  so  long  after  be  connected  by  marriage,  and  come 
into  possession  of  the  Morven  mansion  at  a  juncture  when 
otherwise  that  family  seat  would  have  passed  out  of  a  suc- 
cession in  which  it  had  been  maintained  for  two  centuries. 
Within  its  walls  on  the  due  month  and  day  occurred  a  nota- 
ble celebration  of  the  two-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  grant. 
There  were  gathered  for  the  festival  many  descendants  of 
both  stocks,  and  the  present  holders  of  lands  whose  title  rests 
in  the  grant.     The  ceremonial  was  that  of  the  far-off  olden 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  lv 

time,  as  were  the  costumes;  the  arrangements,  carefully 
studied  by  Dr.  Shields  in  anticipation  of  the  event,  and  with 
reference  to  the  background  of  his  historic  house,  were  ad- 
mirably carried  out  in  all  particulars,  and  impressed  those 
present  with  the  dignity  of  their  heritage,  and  with  its 
accompanying  responsibilities,  exactly  as  he  had  desired. 
The  place  is  as  famous  by  its  later  associations  as  by  its 
origin,  and  its  owner  looked  upon  its  possession  as  a  public 
trust.  To  all  visitors  on  the  high  festivals  of  town  and 
gown  alike,  its  doors  were  open  for  inspection ;  and  very 
often  in  lavish  hospitality. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  tender  associa- 
tions which  endeared  Newport  to  Dr.  Shields;  among  his 
first  cares  after  his  succession  to  his  inheritance  was  the  pur- 
chase of  a  field  on  the  then  sparsely  settled  Ochre  Point. 
There  he  built  a' cottage  after  his  own  ideas,  and  he  furnished 
it  in  the  exercise  of  his  chastened  and  exquisite  taste.  From 
1877  onward  Newport  was  his  summer  home,  except  for  a 
single  year,  the  holidays  of  which  were  spent  in  a  European 
tour,  which  gave  him  the  greatest  possible  pleasure.  His 
visitors  at  Newport  found  him  one  of  a  select  circle  of 
literary  and  other  friends,  no  member  of  which  was  more 
sought  after  than  himself.  In  the  companionship  of  emi- 
nent men  and  women  he  found  refreshment  and  strength ;  as 
has  been  said,  in  the  quiet  of  his  study  on  Ochre  Point  much 
of  his  profoundest  thinking  and  best  writing  was  done.  One 
of  his  activities  was  his  connection  with  the  "  Town  and 
Country  Club  " ;  of  it  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe  was  the  presi- 
dent and  he  was  the  vice-president.  Its  membership  is  in  all 
respects  remarkable,  comprising  the  keen  minds  of  many 
sections  of  the  country,  and  its  proceedings  afforded  to  Dr. 
Shields  a  valuable  stimulus ;  the  honor  it  paid  him  is  sufficient 
evidence  of  what  he  did  for  it.  These  and  his  Princeton 
associations  in  winter  were  the  sources  from  which  he  re- 
newed his  perennial  youth.  He  was  in  the  full  enjoyment  of 
all  the  activities  which  rendered  his  life  so  rich  and  varied, 
when  death  overtook  him  at  Newport  during  his  eightieth 


Ivi  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

year,  on  August  26th,  1904.  He  literally  "  fell  on  sleep  " ; 
in  a  moment,  without  pain  or  warning,  he  was  unconscious, 
and  in  that  state  he  departed  this  life. 


XI. 

Dr.  Shields  died  in  the  communion  and  orders  of  the 
Episcopal  Church.  The  circumstances  under  which  he 
changed  his  denominational  connection  were  as  characteris- 
tic as  any  other  events  of  his  life.  Not  far  from  Morven 
stands  the  Princeton  Inn,  a  hostelry  founded  and  managed 
by  graduates  of  the  college  in  order  that  students  and  their 
friends,  graduates  and  their  families,  may  enjoy  the  ameni- 
ties of  life  in  quiet  comfort.  This  purpose  appealed  to  the 
master  of  Morven  in  every  way,  as  elevating  the  social 
life  of  the  undergraduates,  inviting  the  friends  of  both  the 
institutions  to  lengthened  sojourn,  and  bringing  strangers 
to  visit  with  leisure  the  historic  sights  of  the  town  and  sur- 
rounding country.  Devoted  to  the  cause  of  true  temperance, 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  sign  the  application  for  license  required 
of  hotels  by  the  law  of  the  State,  and  followed  the  example 
in  so  doing  of  other  neighbors,  men  of  the  first  position  in  the 
country  and  the  community.  For  some  years  this  fact,  as  was 
to  be  expected,  attracted  no  attention  whatever.  But  when 
one  of  the  surges  of  intemperate  agitation  against  temper- 
ance, in  favor  of  total  abstinence,  which  arise  from  time  to 
time,  lifted  its  crest  in  all  the  Eastern  college  towns,  it  broke 
also  over  Princeton.  The  crusaders  attacked  Dr.  Shields  as 
a  Presbyterian  minister,  and  sought  to  accumulate  capital  at 
his  expense.  Their  influence  reached  far,  and  appeared  in 
the  sessions  of  the  Presbytery  to  which  he  belonged.  It 
finally  became  clear  that  a  very  delicate  and  embarrassing 
issue  was  to  be  joined.  His  first  and  natural  impulse  was  to 
meet  it  without  compromise  and  stand  on  the  ground  of 
personal  liberty,  which  has  always  been  that  of  his  church 
and  of  his  own.  He  was  little  disturbed  by  the  abuse  and 
vilification  of  fanaticism,  and  was  quite  ready  to  try  con- 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  lvii 

elusions  with  his  opponents.  In  time,  however,  he  had  a 
change  of  conviction.  It  appeared  that  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  had  advised  against  the 
endorsement  of  a  license  as  a  reprehensible  complicity  with 
the  liquor  traffic;  just  as  it  had  characterized  card-playing, 
theatre-going,  and  dancing  as  "  unscriptural,  immoral,  and 
improper  " ;  and  while  the  modifying  circumstances  of  the 
Princeton  Inn  might  well  have  given  him  a  firm  standing  for 
the  defence  of  private  judgment,  yet  it  was  possible  that 
a  long  and  protracted  struggle  might  ensue.  From  this  he 
shrank,  partly  because  of  sensitiveness,  partly  because  he 
did  not  wish  to  involve  his  friends  in  troublesome  litigations 
in  the  church  courts,  while  above  all  he  desired  to  avoid  the 
scandal  of  Christian  brethren  infringing  the  apostolic  in- 
junction against  the  judgment  of  another  man's  servant. 
He  determined,  therefore,  to  withdraw  from  the  ministry 
of  his  ancestral  church,  and  avoid  the  embarrassment  it 
might  cause  to  its  many  members  who  did  not  see  eye  to  eye 
with  him. 

But  whither  should  he  go?  He  felt  bound  to  examine 
himself  thoroughly,  and  weigh  the  claims  of  all  the  reformed 
churches;  this  he  did  earnestly  and  deliberately.  The  de- 
cision which  he  reached  might  have  been  foreseen ;  as  indeed 
it  was,  by  many  of  his  intimate  friends.  Among  the  many 
elements  within  the  fold  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in 
America  there  has  always  been  one,  which  was  essentially 
Scotch  in  its  attitude  toward  Presbyterian  ordination,  hold- 
ing their  own  orders  to  be  as  apostolic  as  any  others.  They 
have  also  stood  firmly  on  the  historic  ground  of  reform  as 
opposed  to  protest  and  schism.  These  are  they  who,  when 
separated  from  the  ministrations  of  their  own  church,  natu 
rally  gravitate  toward  the  one  other  communion  of  Protes- 
tants which  maintains  a  similar  position.  A  divine-right 
Presbyterian  stands  closer  to  the  Episcopal  Church  than  to 
any  other  branch  of  the  Teutonic  church.  These  matters 
were  always,  as  we  have  seen,  close  to  the  heart  of  Dr. 
Shields ;  and  further,  his  belief  in  liturgical  worship  had  now 


lviii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

brought  him  to  the  conviction  that  all  eclecticism  in  that  re- 
gard was  vain,  that  the  reunion  of  Protestant  Christendom 
could  better  be  accomplished  on  the  basis  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  than  on  any  other.  It  was  certain,  there- 
fore, that  his  decision  would  fall  as  it  did.  Moreover,  among 
the  clergy  of  the  Episcopal  Church  he  had  many,  many  per- 
sonal friends,  and  there,  as  he  felt,  was  held  the  orthodox 
view  of  temperance ;  the  scriptural  view,  antagonistic  to  that 
which  criticised  the  conduct  of  the  Son  of  Man  and  which 
"was  invading  His  church,  and  defacing  His  sacrament."  On 
December  14th,  1898,  he  received  the  first  orders  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  from  Bishop  Scarborough,  of  New  Jersey,  in  the 
chapel  of  the  Good  Shepherd,  in  the  city  of  New  York.  On 
May  28th,  1899,  he  was  further  ordained  to  the  full  ministry 
of  that  communion  in  Garden  City  Cathedral  by  Bishop 
Littlejohn,  of  the  Diocese  of  Long  Island,  his  lifelong  friend 
and  comrade.  Not  long  afterward  he  was  elected  a  trustee 
of  the  General  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York.  Before 
that  institution  he  delivered  the  Bishop  Paddock  lectures 
on  the  "  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  which  form  a  part  of 
the  following  volume.  His  services  as  a  preacher  were  in 
frequent  requisition  in  the  pulpit  of  Trinity  Church,  Prince- 
ton, and  elsewhere.  From  Trinity  Church,  in  Princeton, 
he  was  buried,  and  from  its  pulpit  Bishop  Potter,  of  New 
York,  preached  an  eloquent  discourse  in  memory  of  one 
whose  highest  ideals  were  unity  of  the  faith  and  unity  of  the 
church  of  God  upon  earth. 

May  we  suppose,  said  the  Bishop,  that  it  cost  Dr. 
Shields  no  pang  to  sunder  ties  and  end  companionships 
which,  in  their  origin,  reached  back  for  generations,  and 
were  as  truly  a  part  of  his  mental  and  emotional  identity  as 
anything  can  be  ?  There  were  men  whom  he  met  every  day, 
who  loved  and  honored  him — as  who  that  really  knew  him 
could  help  doing? — and  who  had  no  smallest  doubt  as  to  the 
honesty  of  his  motives,  or  the  integrity  of  his  action,  in  any 
step  that  separated  him  from  his  earlier  associates ;  but  who 
could  never  forget  that  a  certain  action  had  been  determined 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  lix 

upon  by  him,  and  that  a  certain  step  had  been  taken.  When 
;  ese  men  met  him,  with  whatever  continuance  of  the  old 
warmth  and  cordiality,  they  knew  and  he  knew,  that  there 
was  one  group  of  subjects  that  were  to  be  avoided,  and  one 
realm  of  discussion  even  the  outer  portals  of  which  were 
never  any  more  to  be  opened !  And  yet,  continued  the 
Bishop,  with  what  gentle  dignity  and  gracious  self-re- 
straint, through  it  all,  he  bore  himself!  Yes,  and  with  what 
true  nobility  of  largeness  and  charity  did  this  ancient  Uni- 
versity bear  herself  toward  him!  One  can  easily  imagine, 
on  the  part  of  associates  and  authorities  from  whom  he 
separated,  something  of  resentment,  because  of  action  on  Dr. 
Shields's  part,  which  some  of  them  thought  inconsistent,  if 
not  positively  disloyal.  But  if  they  ever  thought  so,  they 
never  said  so;  or  if  they  said  so,  they  said  it  with  such 
cautious  reserve  that  it  never  came  to  outside  ears.  And  I 
must  confess,  for  myself,  that  there  has  always  seemed  some- 
thing especially  dear  and  beautiful  in  the  fact  that,  with 
Princeton,  its  social  and  its  intellectual  life ;  and  best  of  all, 
with  that  great  University  in  which  so  long  he  was  a  pro- 
fessor— that  with  all  these  he  remained  identified  to  the  last ! 
Long  may  his  memory  survive  here  as  that  of  a  true  scholar, 
a  pure  and  most  lovable  man,  who  brought  to  great  oppor- 
tunities great  gifts,  and  who  used  them,  with  unwearied 
fidelity,  for  God  and  man ! 

These  appreciative  words  are  strictly  and  literally  true. 
The  attitude  of  the  university  continued  in  the  end  what  it 
had  been  in  the  beginning,  what  it  has  ever  been  in  like  in- 
stances, sympathetic  to  every  man  who  sincerely  seeks  the 
truth  of  faith  and  conduct  in  the  light  given  to  him.  For 
example.  Dr.  Patton,  President  during  fourteen  years  of  Dr. 
Shields's  professorship,  was  the  most  outspoken  critic  of  his 
colleague's  work  in  philosophy,  the  fearless  champion  of 
the  orthodoxy  as  held  in  the  Princeton  Seminary.  His  was 
the  only  criticism  which  ever  moved  Dr.  Shields  from  the 
even  tenor  of  his  studies,  and  induced  him  to  defend  his 
positions.     Yet  in  the  minute  which  he  prepared  for  the  fac- 


lx  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

ulty  on  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Patton,  he  did  not  miss  a 
single  one  of  the  great  milestones  which  had  characterized 
the  passing  administration;  its  growth  in  material  and  in- 
tellectual equipment,  the  maturity  which  it  had  reached  in 
academic  development,  the  new  spirit  of  research,  and  the 
educational  method  by  which  it  had  been  marked.  To  his 
rare  logical  skill,  acumen,  and  familiarity  with  living  issues, 
there  is  also  a  sincere  tribute.  In  turn  Dr.  Patton  has  put  on 
record  the  esteem  in  which  he  held  Dr.  Shields,  and  the 
position  he  had  taken.  I  have  no  reason  to  believe,  he 
said  in  the  "  Princeton  Bulletin,"  that  when  he  (Dr. 
Shields)  took  orders  in  the  Episcopal  Church  his  views  re- 
specting the  validity  of  his  own  Presbyterian  ordination  had 
undergone  a  change;  and  I  am  confident  that  his  Calvin- 
istic  theology  underwent  no  revision,  either  before  or  after 
he  left  the  Presbyterian  ministry.  To  those  who  knew  the 
circumstances  it  was  not  strange  that  Dr.  Shields,  so  late 
in  life,  entered  the  ministry  of  another  church;  and  to  those 
of  us  who  knew,  and  loved,  and  trusted  him,  his  change 
of  denominational  relations  made  no  difference  in  our  sense 
of  fellowship  with  him.  He  was  to  us  the  same  genial, 
gentle,  lovable,  refined,  and  scholarly  Dr.  Shields  that  he  had 
always  been ;  and  we  were  only  sorry  that  the  roll  of  minis- 
ters of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  had  been  enriched 
through  our  loss  of  a  name  that  had  long  adorned  our  own. 
These  words  of  one  who  is  now  the  president  of  the  Prince- 
ton Theological  Seminary,  are  a  fitting  pendant  to  those  of 
Bishop  Potter. 

John  Calvin  was  indeed  one  of  Dr.  Shields's  heroes.  The 
aspersions  cast  upon  the  great  reformer,  he  regarded  with 
contempt  and  disgust;  in  1893  he  published  a  monograph, 
recondite  in  its  learning  and  fiercely  polemic  in  its  argument, 
which  spurns  the  accusation  that  Calvin  burned  Servetus. 
No  one  has  yet  risen  to  refute  it.  So  strongly  had  the  theme 
:aken  hold  of  the  writer's  imagination  that  he  saw  the  dra- 
matic qualities  of  it  in  a  clear  light,  and  as  an  avocation  he 
composed  a  drama  entitled,  "  The  Reformer  of  Geneva," 


A  Biographical  Sketch,  lxi 

which  was  published  and  widely  read.  Charles  Dudley 
Warner,  Laurence  Hutton,  Weir  Mitchell,  Henry  M.  Baird, 
and  other  experts  like  them  wrote  of  it  in  unstinted  praise; 
newspapers  like  the  Philadelphia  Press,  the  Christian 
World,  of  London,  and  the  New  York  Evening  Post, 
reviewed  it  sympathetically.  Perhaps  the  highest  tribute 
came  from  Professor  Dowden,  the  famous  British  critic. 
He  wrote:  It  seems  as  if  a  few  hours  were  too  short  a 
time  to  allow  of  real  acquaintance  with  so  large  an  out- 
put of  mind.  But  I  have  read  it  all  with  eager  interest, 
and  with  close  attention — breaking  off  last  night  and  resum- 
ing my  reading  at  five  this  morning.  It  is  a  piece  of  his- 
tory lifted  into  drama  with,  I  am  sure,  remarkable  fidelity, 
and  certainly  with  remarkable  vividness.  All  the  characters 
live,  and  the  action  does  not  flag  or  falter.  There  is  rare 
strength  and  dignity,  with  a  touch  of  hidden  tenderness  and 
pathos,  in  Calvin ;  and  I  can  well  believe  your  Servetus  to  be 
the  real  Servetus.  The  love  of  La  Fontaine  and  your  crea- 
tion, Idelette — a  nest  in  the  storm  and  rocking  trees — is  a 
strenuous  love,  and  it  is  duly  subordinated  to  the  tragic  in- 
terests. I  seem  to  understand  the  life  of  Geneva  better  than 
I  ever  did  before,  and  I  thank  you  for  a  possession  of  endur- 
ing value. 

XII. 

This,  with  the  other  appreciations  of  Dr.  Shields's  work 
in  preaching,  in  teaching,  and  in  literature,  have  been  given, 
lest  the  reader  might  think  of  him  as  a  mere  dilettante  in  all 
these  lines  of  work,  so  versatile  was  his  genius  and  so  varied 
his  avocations.  The  evidence  adduced,  to  which  much  might 
be  added,  is  quite  sufficient  to  prove  the  contrary.  Never- 
theless, in  this  age  of  high  specialization,  the  wide  scope  of 
Dr.  Shields's  interests  and  activities  had  something  to  do 
with  the  interest  taken  in  that  which  was  his  life  work. 
Too  many  concluded,  on  insufficient  grounds,  that  no  man 
could  do  the  basic  and  thorough  work  which  he  aimed  to 
do,  when   his  energies  were  so  engaged  elsewhere.     The 


lxii  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

day  of  the  polymath  had  gone,  and  finite  powers  must  be  con- 
tent with  knowing  little  about  many  things  if  they  were  to 
grasp  much  about  anything.  Such  a  view,  widely  preva- 
lent, is  the  worst  heresy  of  our  times,  and  is  the  force  which 
has  debased  our  intellectual  standards  to  a  level  on  which 
charlatanism  thrives.  No  high  standard  of  either  knowledge, 
judgment,  or  expression  is  possible  unless  set  by  men  of 
extensive  learning,  and  intensive  study  within  a  broad  field. 
Moreover,  professional  and  technical  investigation,  the  re- 
sults of  the  highest  specializations,  are  themselves  legitimate 
subjects  of  examination.  No  scholar  is  in  greater  danger 
than  he  who  confines  himself  exclusively  to  work  within 
narrow  bounds;  and  just  such  men  suddenly,  in  the  natural 
and  overmastering  desire  for  generalization,  are  they  who 
proceed  to  establish  great  principles  on  insufficient  data.  The 
best  antidote  for  such  rashness  is  in  exactly  the  line  of  work 
which  Dr.  Shields  essayed  to  do,  and  in  just  the  equipment 
which  he  sought  to  provide  for  the  comparative  method  as 
applied  to  determining  the  order  and  value  of  the  sciences, 
human  and  natural.  To  judge  him  the  court  must  be  at  least 
as  well  trained  in  the  principles  of  a  transcendental  and 
metaphysical  philosophy  as  he  was.  So  far  is  this  true  that 
it  would  be  almost  impossible  to  draw  a  jury  of  such  suffi- 
cient intelligence  as  to  fit  it  for  trying  the  case.  In  his  field 
of  inquiry  Dr.  Shields  found  that,  often,  if  not  always,  it 
had  been  necessary  to  exchange  the  advocate  for  the  judge. 
Men  like  Locke,  Descartes,  Leibnitz,  Berkeley,  and  above 
all,  Butler,  were  quite  as  much  philosophers  as  apologetes  if 
not  more  so;  and  did  not  hesitate  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the 
case  which  they  themselves  presented.  If  Dr.  Shields  found 
himself  compelled  at  times  to  a  similar  course,  his  capacity 
for  umpirage  was  due  to  the  broad  sympathies,  the  exten- 
sive learning,  and  the  inclusive  experience  of  life,  the  phases 
of  which  have  been  indicated  if  not  described. 

The  passion  for  systematized  knowledge  is  as  old  as  civili- 
zation, and  the  effort  to  unify  science  began  with  Plato. 
From  his  day  to  this  the  list  of  writers  who  have  attempted  a 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  lxiii 

classification  of  the  sciences  is  unbroken.  The  pamphlet  en- 
titled "The  Order  of  the  Sciences,"  which  Dr.  Shields  pub- 
lished in  i8Sj,  was  the  first  essay  made  in  America  to  deal 
with  the  question.  Had  the  author  but  lived  a  year  longer  he 
would  have  had  the  gratification  of  reading  in  Professor 
Robert  Flint's  history  of  the  subject  an  appreciative  tribute 
to  the  work.  Dr.  Flint  had  evidently  not  seen  the  later 
modifications  of  the  "  Order,"  and  the  changes  made  in  the 
theory  of  their  development,  which  was  published  in 
various  journals,  and  are  now  given  in  the  author's  final 
revision,  partly  in  this  volume  and  chiefly  in  the  preceding 
one.  Nevertheless,  in  Dr.  Flint's  exhaustive  treatise  Dr. 
Shields  is  first  among  the  American  names ;  and  to  his  some- 
what embryonic  outline  the  most  respectful  consideration  is 
given,  accompanied  by  high  praise.  What  is  even  more 
striking  is  the  fact  that  the  definition  of  philosophy  as  "  scien- 
tia  scientiarum,"  a  definition  much  disputed  by  Dr.  Shields's 
American  critics,  is  adopted  by  the  learned  Scotchman  as  a 
matter  of  course,  a  definition  requiring  no  defence. 

In  Flint's  judgment,  the  treatise,  small  and  merely  intro- 
ductory as  it  is,  ranks  among  the  best ;  and  he  declares  that 
while  its  exhibition  of  the  scheme  of  scientific  distribution  is 
clear  and  skilful,  its  criticism  of  other  classifications  is  also 
discriminating  and  incisive.  In  the  order  of  time  and  the 
estimate  of  capable  critics,  as  well  as  by  the  further  elabora- 
tion of  his  subject,  Dr.  Shields  appears  to  be  the  Nestor  and 
founder  of  this  department  of  philosophy  in  our  country. 
Of  course,  Flint  and  Shields,  alike  in  accepting  "  scientia 
scientiarum  "  as  a  definition  of  philosophy,  are  also  alike  in 
confining  that  definition  to  theoretical  philosophy,  "  as  a 
scheme  of  the  sciences,  as  an  inquiry  into  the  nature  and 
limits  of  knowledge,  and  as  a  doctrine  of  being  and  becoming 
— or,  in  other  words,  philosophy  as  positive,  critical,  and 
metaphysical."  Both  were  well  aware  that  this,  while  the 
most  of  philosophy,  is  not  the  whole  of  it;  that  "practical 
applicability  is  a  necessary  consequence  of  theoretical  accu- 
racy."    The  quotations  are  from  the  former  of  the  two 


lxiv  Charles  Woodruff  Shields. 

authors,  but  the  latter  has  in  his  second  volume,  and  in  con- 
versation, repeatedly  said  the  same  thing.  Indeed,  had  Dr. 
Flint  ever  seen  Dr.  Shields's  second  volume,  he  would  have 
recognized  a  close  kinship  of  mind  with  the  earlier  writer. 
Neither  would  surrender  an  inch  of  the  territory  won  by 
sound  theory  to  the  pragmatic  meddlers  who,  in  their  as- 
sumptions, discard  not  merely  the  relations  of  the  sciences, 
but  even  the  conditions  of  knowledge  and  the  very  nature 
of  both  existence  and  causation,  as  immaterial  to  the  con- 
cept of  a  universe  and  its  order.  Difficulties  must  needs 
arise,  and  they  can  never  be  composed  either  by  observation 
or  by  analysis ;  there  must  be  a  synthesis,  and  it  can  never 
be  reached  by  apathy  and  neglect. 

The  great  task  which  the  author  set  for  himself  early  in 
life  was  completed  in  his  old  age  when  he  had  prepared  the 
following  pages  for  the  press.  It  had  not  occurred  to  him 
to  preface  their  publication  by  any  apology  for  the  book ; 
his  work  was  no  longer  tentative,  and  had  received  the  en- 
comiums of  so  many  able  critics  on  the  continent  of  Europe, 
in  Great  Britain,  and  at  home,  that  he  might  justly  feel  his 
place  to  be  assured.  Moreover,  he  was  a  man  of  apostolic 
temper,  clear  as  to  his  theme  and  its  bearing,  faithful  in  the 
performance  of  a  plain  duty  which  had  been  revealed  to 
him  in  the  most  searching  self-examination.  Not  given  to 
polemics,  he  was  nevertheless  a  master  in  attack  and  argu- 
ment, fond  of  the  fray,  and  the  last  to  leave  the  field.  To 
the  three  volumes  of  the  "  Final  Philosophy  "  he  gave  the 
best  of  his  life,  and  by  their  contents  he  wished  to  be  judged. 
It  is  not  likely  that  posthumous  opinion,  any  more  than  that 
of  his  contemporaries,  will  go  to  the  extreme  of  honeyed 
panegyric.  His  subject  is  too  abstruse  and  recondite  for 
any  general  agreement  thereon  to  be  easily  reached ;  but 
that  he  will  be  gratefully  regarded  as  an  able  surveyor  in  the 
field,  and  that  he  will  be  felt  to  have  established  many  impor- 
tant principles  of  procedure,  seems  certain  to  the  present 
writer.  His  claim  to  remembrance  in  the  United  States  as 
a  pioneer  is  undoubted;  and  furthermore,  even  those  who 


A  Biographical  Sketch.  lxv 

cannot  accept  his  main  thesis  are  sure  to  appreciate  the  in- 
cidental value  of  an  erudition  marked  by  sympathy,  richness, 
and  a  cosmic  scope. 

This  memoir  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  detail  either  the 
praise  or  the  blame,  the  assent  or  dissent,  with  which  his 
most  important  work  has  been  received.  In  fact,  until  now 
the  work  has  been  incomplete,  and  with  this  volume  it  is  for 
the  first  time  before  the  public  in  its  entirety.  There  may, 
in  consequence,  be  some  revision  of  opinion ;  if  so  the  object 
of  this  brief  memoir  will  have  been  secured,  provided  the 
chosen  few,  who  alone  can  appreciate  and  judge  the  life 
work  of  Dr.  Shields,  derive  from  it  any  information  likely  to 
elucidate  the  spirit  in  which  he  began  and  finished  his  task. 


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